Raising Bella Cullen
by Potterhetfan
Summary: The story of little Bella Cullen being raised by the rest of the Cullen Clan. Lots of fun, drama, and romance.
1. Chapter 1

"Race home!" Emmett yelled. Since I knew Rosalie was the slowest runner I was all for a race. I wasn't the fastest, Edward was, so I knew I wouldn't win but at least I wouldn't loose.

The whole family had been out hunting. It was our first time hunting here in Forks Washington so we all went together. My wonderful husband Jasper raced ahead of me with a smile. I grimaced and picked up my pace when suddenly I was overwhelmed with a vision.

_Edward reached home first and Emmett was furious. He ran towards Edward who was now frozen with a look of shock on his face. Emmett looked confused for a moment,_

_ "Edward, what the he-" he suddenly stopped talking when he looked where Edward was looking. Laying on the door step in a little box was something wrapped in blankets. A dark brown-eyed baby._

I gasped. A baby? Edward, who was running in front of me, yelled back,

"What was that Alice? A human baby?" I was at a loss for words. _I don't know, _I thought. Sure enough, a few moments later Edward stopped running right in front of our faded white house with an array of windows reaching from the bottom of the house to where the first floor ended and then another set of windows began for the second floor and then a set for the third floor.

It all played out just as it did in the vision, first with Edward freezing and then Emmett. Soon we where all standing there, frozen. I couldn't understand why there was a little baby girl on our doorstep. I kept getting flashes of her growing up with us. Then came flashes of her as a vampire, married to Edward. I was stunned. Edward was even more stunned. He whispered,

"I _marry _her?" I just nodded. That's when I picked up on a faint scent. Vampire. Whoever put her here was a vampire. The smell was faint which meant the baby had probably been here the whole time we were hunting. I slowly walked towards the baby and that's when I smelled her scent. The scent was very tempting but definitely manageable. She appeared to be around 3 months old. She was awake and staring at me with her big brown eyes and a smile on her face. There was a little note laying on her that I picked up and read it.

_Dear Olympic Coven,_

_ I am sad to say that it is no longer possible for me to keep my dear daughter Isabella Marie with me. I was only recently changed into a vampire by the Volturi. I had no interest in joining them though. So of course they will destroy me. I have managed to hide Isabella from the Volturi but I need her to be safe, just in case. Her birthday is June 4, 1991 so she is 4 months old as of today._

_ Please raise her as your own. I would hate to think of my daughter growing up in an orphanage or foster care. Please. As vampires you are strong enough to protect her from anything. I know this is where she is meant to be. Make sure she knows I love her and only wanted her safe. _

_ Renee_

After I read it aloud I looked into the future once more. It seemed as though we kept her and she was happy. A smile spread across my face. A baby! This could fix all of our problems. All of have always wanted a baby (except for Edward.) This could be our real chance to raise a baby!

I looked around and everyone had looks of shock on there face except for Rosalie who was smiling like me. It took a few minutes but slowly everyone unfroze. Carlisle was the first to speak,

"This is definitely a unique situation. We should all sit down inside and discuss this." I gently picked up Isabella, careful to keep her wrapped in the blankets, and walked inside with everyone following me. We all sat down in our large, open white living room. Little Isabella was looking around the room at everyone in wonder. Jasper came to sit on one side of me and Edward sat down on the other side, his eyes locked on Isabella. This time Rose was the first to speak,

"Oh, _please _can she stay here Carlisle?" Rose had always wanted a baby. She wants a baby more than any of us. Carlisle sighed and Esme said hopefully,

"Carlisle maybe she should stay."

"Yeah it'd be nice to have a little cutie around," Emmett said with a smile. Edward spoke while still staring at her,

"I can't read her mind." We all looked at him with surprised expressions. I asked,

"Really?" He simply nodded and said,

"She smells so...so...intriguing. Almost...intoxicating..." his voice trailed off. Rosalie spoke up,

"See, maybe the fact that Edward can't read her mind is a could thing. She's special."

"Special," Edward repeated. He slowly stopped looking at Isabella and looked at me. "Am I really going to..." he didn't continue but he didn't need to. I nodded and said confidently,

"Yes. One day your going to marry her. She's your mate." Emmett said jokingly,

"Well Eddie, out of all the times I imagined you finding your mate I didn't imagine her as a baby," he smiled. Edward just looked really shocked. Carlisle looked at me,

"Alice why don't you just tell us if Isabella is staying. It'll save us time." I cheered,

"Yay she's staying!" Everyone smiled, even Edward. Though Rosalie was clearly the happiest.

"Well now that that's decided there is something else you need to tell us Alice." I asked,

"What?" He explained,

"Well obviously we will all be a major part of her life but who will be her primary parents?" I was again overcome with a vision.

_A two your old Isabella was walking around the living room. She crawled up onto Emmett's lap. She said in a sweet voice,_

_ "Hey Daddy! Where's Mommy?" Rosalie appeared at the kitchen doorway and laughed. Isabella turned around and jumped off Emmett and jumped into Rosalie's arms. "Hi Mommy!"_

_ "Hey baby."_

This was perfect! Emmett would make such a good dad and Rosalie had always ached for a child. I smiled and everyone looked at me expectantly. I stood and walked over to Rosalie. I handed her Isabella and whispered,

"You and Emmett just became parents." Rosalie looked down at Isabella like she was the most gorgeous person alive. Emmett had his arm wrapped around Rosalie and was staring at Isabella with a huge grin. I went and sat back down. Then a thought occurred to me.

"Oh my gosh guys! Do you know what this means? Shopping!" Esme and Rosalie smiled but the others groaned. Esme pondered,

"I wonder if Isabella can say anything." Emmett shrugged,

"Only one way to find out," He looked at Isabella who was staring at him curiously, "Hey cutie. Can you say anything Isabella?" She did nothing but then spoke in the cutest voice,

"Bewa."

"Isabella?" She frowned and repeated,

"Bewa." Carlisle said cheerfully,

"I think she wants you to call her Bella." Isa-I mean Bella looked over at Carlisle and smiled. Emmett spoke happily,

"Well Bella it is. Can you say anything else Bella?" Bella looked out one of the window where a small black cat was perched on the windowsill, asleep. She said,

"C...a...t. Ca...t." Carlisle was amazed,

"For a four month old she seems _extremely _advanced." Rosalie cooed,

"Can you say anything else, little one?" Bella smiled and said very slowly,

"You wampire." Carlisle sucked in a breath,

"She knows we're vampires." Edward asked,

"How is that possible?" Wow, she might be a prodigy. Edward looked at me and said,

"She might be." Rosalie asked,

"Be what?" Edward replied,

"A prodigy of sorts. Or at least extremely advanced." Carlisle added,

"She probably knows we're vampires because her mother was a vampire. We obviously would look a lot like her." Bella looked at Emmett and put her arms out. Rosalie handed her to him somewhat reluctantly. Emmett smiled at Bella and she smiled.

"Well aren't you cute?" He cooed. She just blinked. I sighed,

"Guys! Shopping?" Esme nodded,

"Oh goodness we had better go soon. Bella's gonna need so much. Clothes, formula, diapers, bottles, and so much more! Alice, Rosalie and I should go shopping with Bella," she looked at Emmett, "You, Carlisle, and Edward need to pick one of the bedrooms upstairs to be her bedroom and paint it. Alice, what color do they need to get." I looked quickly into the future at a light purple bedroom.

"Light purple." She nodded and continued,

"After you paint the bedroom, baby-proof the house. Do this at full vampire speed because this needs to be done by tonight. Everyone clear?" We all nodded. Emmett handed Bella to Rosalie and the boys headed out. We gathered our purses and then headed to the mall. Oh, this would be fun!


	2. Chapter 2

Rosalie's P.O.V

I'm a mother! The first time I saw little Isabella with her big brown eyes and her pale and sod t skin, I just knew it was mean to be.

When I first became a vampire, I had loathed it. I had always wanted a husband and a child. I had spent many years hating Carlisle because he changed me. When I fount Emmett, things got better but there was still a huge hole in my life. I wanted a baby for us to love and raise and take care of. Bella is like a little miracle for Emmett and I.

As Esme, Alice, and I walked through the local mall buying things Bella began crying. I looked down at her. Her little lips were wide open and she looked very upset. Esme and Alice both came over to us.

"What's wrong with Bella?" Esme asked. Poor Bella's crying made me feel awful and helpless. I desperately looked to Alice who smiled and explained,

"She hungry, Rose. Calm down." She reached into the pink flowery diaper bag full of some things we had already bought. She pulled out a ready made bottle and put it in my free hand. I showed it to Bella and she stopped crying and reached for it. I delicately put it in her mouth. She tried to hold it herself but couldn't so I held it for her.

I was feeding _my_ baby for the first time and it was amazing. It made me feel so wonderful. Alice grabbed her camera from the diaper bag and took several pictures of it and I was glad she did. I wanted Bella to be able to look at these pictures one day.

After I was finished feeding her, she fell asleep. Alice took pictures of that as well.

We hen continued shopping. We bought everything we thought Bella would possibly need or want. We, for the most part, kept up with a light purple and pink color scheme. We bought things until we barely had room for ourselves in the car. We even had a few things, including the crib, tied to the roof of the car. Then we drove home. The entire time Bella remained asleep. When we got home, all the boys were in the living room. Emmett came up to me and kissed me lightly. Esme asked,

"Did you boys pick and paint one of the bedrooms?" Emmett answered,

"Yeah and don't worry Alice, we picked the room with the biggest closet." She smiled and replied,

"I know." I laughed. After that Alice and I took over. I handed Bella to Emmett so we could decorate her room, which was on the third floor. We did it all at full vampire speed so it only took an hour and a half.

When we were finished the room was perfect for a baby. The large crib (we bought the largest they had) was in the center of the room, a light purple changing table was in the right corner, a little kiddy pink couch in the left corner of the room, lots of shelves on the walls, a small television on a stand in front of the crib and stuffed animals _everywhere_. Alice had put all the clothes she had bought (which was a ton) into the closet and then we went downstairs. I was slightly surprised to find Edward holding Bella.

Edward was smiling down at Bella and it was the kind of smile we hardly ever saw from Edward. Genuine happiness. Before Edward could object, Alice took several pictures of it. He groaned but didn't say anything.

When he groaned, little Bella stirred in her sleep. Her head moved to rest on his chest a little. To be honest, she even looked a little more peaceful in Edwards arms then she did with Emmett or with me. While that made me slightly jealous, it was cute to see her look so peaceful. Esme said,

"Maybe you should put her in her new crib, Edward." He didn't even look up. He just nodded and headed upstairs. Alice and I followed him. Alice took pictures the entire time, of course. When Edward sat Bella in the crib Alice took a picture and cooed,

"Aw!" She obviously said it too loud because Bella immediately woke up. She looked around and began crying. This wasn't a little crying either. She was sobbing her poor little eyes out and her cries radiated through the room. "Oops!" Alice said. I quickly picked up Bella and began rocking her in my arms gently. I continued rocking her but she didn't stop. I frantically asked,

"What's wrong with her, Alice?" Her eyes clouded for a moment but quickly returned to normal. She looked frustrated,

"I don't know! I can't concentrate with her crying." Oh, great. That sure helps. Her little cry's where making my dead heart ache with pain. Edward suggested,

"Maybe she's hungry."

"How can that be? We just fed her!" He shrugged,

"Babies eat more frequently than other humans. It's worth a shot." I nodded and within a second he he'd left the room and was back holding a bottle. He handed it to me but when I put it near Bella's mouth she smacked it and cried louder. I didn't know what was wrong with her! She didn't need her diaper changed because there was no smell. We took her downstairs and let the others try to calm her.

If its even possible, she cried louder with each person that held her. By the time she got to Carlisle's arms he was worried she would have a very sore throat if she continued. The worry in the room was so large that Jasper's face was contorted in pain. If she didn't stop soon I was going to ask Jasper to use his power on her. Just as I was about to ask Jasper, something miraculous happened.

Carlisle handed Bella to Edward and she immediately stopped crying. She stopped crying and screaming. She was instantly very calm. In fact, she looked up at Edward with her cute little face, and smiled.

Maybe she really was going to marry him someday...

**Author's Note: I know it's short but it's kinda important for following chapters. I **_**promise **_**to update either tomorrow or Thursday! The other chapter is already in progress. Please review whether good or bad! I want your comments and criticism. **


	3. End of Chapter 2

Rosalie's P.O.V continued...

Over the next few days it became very clear that Bella had taken quite a shine to Edward. While when she cried Emmett and I could easily calm her, the only one who could get her out of her screaming fits seemed to be Edward. Alice continued to snap as many pictures of possible, We dresses Bella in at least three outfits a day, and Emmett and I embraced our new parenthood.

I constantly wanted to hold her and so did Emmett. She has only been with us a few days but the whole family already loves her. Over the past two days we have tried getting her to watch cartoons such as Mickey Mouse and Hey Arnold! but she seems to have no interest. Then one night we tried to get her to play with her stuffed animals.

So we all sat around on the floor of her bedroom with her stuffed animals. I held her in my hands as they all showed her the stuffed animals and tried to get her to reach for one or want to play with it. We had almost no luck.

I thought that maybe she just didn't like stuffed animals but then Emmett picked up a little brown stuffed bunny with black eyes and pink ears. He put it in front of her face and said in a fake squeaky voice,

"Hello Bella. I'm Eddie the bunny!" This the most beautiful sound came from Bella. A cheerful giggle. It made my investing heart feel alive. It was the most amazing sound I've ever heard. She reached out for the bunny and Emmett put it in her delicate little hands. She pressed it gently to her chest. Everyone was smiling and looked just as swept away by her giggle as me. Bella then looked at Edward and then the bunny and back at him. She said,

"E..Eddwie. Wike Ed...Edw...Edwar...d?" Edward smiled and Carlisle spoke up,

"Well Edward. If I didn't know better, I'd say Bella already loves you." I couldn't quite disagree but I didn't continue thinking of that for long because Bella got an odd look on her face and Alice began giggling. I asked,

"What?" To which she replied,

"You'll see." Oh, boy did I. Little Bella's face turned green and she threw up on my blue blouse. Everyone burst out laughing while I'm sure I wore a look of horror. When I watched Emmett let out a loud guffaw of a laugh, I glared at him. He didn't seem to notice for a moment but then stopped laughing. He suggested,

"Um, I'll take Bella while you, uh, clean up." I nodded, handed Bella to him, and said a little coldly,

"You do that."

3 Weeks Later...

I was sitting on the couch with Emmett's arm wrapped around me watching Bella sit in Edwards arms while he fed her pureed apples. When she was finished eating he sat the little bowl down on the glass coffee table. This is when we watched the next milestone in her life.

She began using her arms to push against Edwards leg. He looked confused but let her do it. She kept pushing and scooted her butt a little. Obviously Alice knew what wuss happening because she was taking pictures. So for course Edward read her mind and recognition crossed his face but I was confused. She continued this motion for a minute or two before she worked her way into a sitting position. I gasped because this was the first time she sat up all on her own.

"I can't believe I almost went hunting tonight. I might have missed this," Emmett said thoughtfully. Alice assured him,

"I wouldn't have let you go." I was only partially listening. A large part of me was staring in wonder at the beautiful baby girl that had become my daughter. Isabella Marie Hale Cullen. Little Bella.

**Author's Note: This is the continuation and end of Chapter 2**


	4. Chapter 3

The next great milestone in my little babies life was just six weeks later. Emmett and I went hunting but after just a few deer we came back because we couldn't bare being away from Bella. When we walked through the door, Bella was sitting on Esme's leg holding Eddie the Bunny.

Over the past few weeks she had become attached to that bunny. Wherever she was, she had to have it with her. One day, Esme took it while she was asleep to wash it. When Bella awoke and saw it wasn't with her she immediately went into a fit. We all tried to calm her while Esme rushed to finish washing the bunny but it was no use. She would not stop crying. Even when Edward held her she continued with her fit. Only when Eddie the Bunny was back in her hands did she stop crying.

Anyway, when we walked through the door she looked up and smiled. She stared at Emmett for a moment before she said,

"D...da...dada!" The face Emmet made could only be described as euphoria. He immediately walked over and scooped her into his arms while Alice snapped pictures. While I was very excited, my self-centered side couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

That quickly passed though because she looked at me and said sweetly,

"M...mo...ma...momma!" I welled with extreme joy. I walked over to her and stroke her hair. I cooed,

"Aw sweetie!" this moment was amazing. Now it really seemed like I was her mother, and not just the girl that wanted to be. As Emmett and I gathered around Bella I think I truly saw what we were. Something I had always wanted but never thought possible. A family. A mother and father with a beautiful daughter.

I was brought out of my thoughts by Alice's trilling voice,

"Maybe we should get her some story books for her. We could read them to her to help her learn more words." Carlisle said in his doctor voice,

"That's a good idea Alice."

"Yeah, it does," I agreed. Truthfully, my only thought was how nice it would be to read Bella bedtime stories at night. Alice asked excitedly,

"Do you know what that means?" I sighed happily,

"Shopping."

After I fed and changed Bella I grabbed her diaper bag and Alice, Bella, and I headed to the local bookstore. It was about a ten minute drive and then I got Bella out of her pink carseat and walked in to the little brown bookstore.

The bookstore was small and the children's book section was only three shelves. They had books like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, The Berenstain Bears, Arthur, The Rainbow Fish, and Dr Seuss. We were both so excited we just couldn't decide what to buy! So we bought one of each.

When we went to the check-out counter the lady there gave us a weird look. For a moment I was mildly concerned. Did we buy too many books? Then I realized she was probably just looking at us because of our pale skin and amazing beauty.

As we drove home little Bella sneezed. I shrugged it off, assuming it was the dust or something. But the closer we got to home, the more she sneezed. Her little nose was getting red and her eyes were watering. I got a tissue from the diaper bag and reached back to where she was in her carseat and dabbed the area around her eyes. She started crying which made me feel dreadful.

I looked frantically over to Alice. She saw my look and tried to sooth me,

"Don't worry, Rose. It's just a common cold. Carlisle will help her when we get home." While that made me feel a little bit better I suddenly felt as though the car was moving at the speed of a snail. I growled,

"Well drive faster." She sped up a little. But only a little. I sighed and looked back at poor Bella. She was no longer crying but was now sniffling. I didn't know what to do! I had never felt so helpless in my entire vampire life. I had never been around a sick baby and wasn't sure what the protocol was. Was there some sort of medicine you gave babies? How long did a cold last? I wasn't sure.

Even though the car ride was only ten minutes it felt much longer. Every second felt like minutes and ever minute felt like hours. The click of the clock on the dashboard was pure torture. When the car pulled into the driveway I sighed in relief.

The moment the car stopped I had Bella out of the car and I dashed into the house. When I reached Carlisle, who was leaning against a window in the living room I stopped. I suddenly couldn't form words. I looked from him to my sniffling Bella. Him to Bella, him to Bella. He looked confused but then looked at Bella and comprehension crossed his face and he switched into to doctor-mode.

"Rosalie, give me Bella and lets go to my office." I nodded and extremely reluctantly handed my little Bella to her. We both headed upstairs to his little office. Alice came up and sat a high chair up and then left. Once Bella was in the highchair he took her temperature. He mutter, "100.2 degrees fahrenheit." I sighed and stroked Bella's hair. My poor, poor Bella.

He did a few more things before he turned to me. He looked very sympathetic. I asked,

"What's wrong with her?" He explained,

"It's just a common cold which is good news. There are a few things we can do. First, around fifteen minutes before you feed her we need to give her saline drops up her nose to help her breathe while she feeds. We can rub petroleum jelly around her nose to help the redness and she's old enough that we can give her water to keep her hydrated which will help her fever go down. It's also important that we try to get her as much sleep as possible. Other than that we need to let her body heal itself."

I nodded and we began a long, long night. _Poor, poor little Bella._

**Author's Note: Here it is! I really hope you like it. Please Review and let me know:**

**Should I skip ahead a little? If so, how far?**


	5. Start of Chapter 4

Edward's P.O.V.

Carlisle had said that Bella just had a cold but my worry was still high. Over the time that Bella had been here I had grown to love her like family. Seeing her red little nose and her usual pale feature take on a sickly pale color made me me feel dreadful. Everyone around me had similar thoughts as we were gathered in her bedroom trying to get Bella to fall asleep.

_ Oh, my poor Bella_, thought Rosalie.

_This is going to last for days! I hope Bella's alright_, thought Alice. The only person who's thought were helpful, though, was Jasper,

_Maybe I should use my power to lull_ her_ to sleep_. My head snapped up in his direction. I said desperately,

"You should try it. Please."

"Try what?" Asked Emmett. Jasper explained,

"Using my power to get her to sleep." Carlisle said,

"That's a good idea. She need her sleep." Everyone nodded and Jasper began concentrating. Within a few moments Bella began to breath slower and fell asleep. I sighed in relief.

It was surprising how much this little girl had changed all of our lives. All of the girls, who had always felt a little empty without a child were now happy and content. Jasper, who I had never thought could love a human, has become much more confident in his ability to control his bloodlust.

Carlisle not only loves Bella but is also very proud of not only himself but proud of all of us (especially Rosalie and Jasper) for our ability to love a human. Emmett's love for Bella may even be more than Rosalie's.

Then there's me. I'm the one who's supposed to one day marry this little girl. It doesn't really make sense. At the moment I love her but not in that way. I feel protective of her and care for her but whether or not this will one day develop into real love is hard to say. I suppose anything is possible.

I mean we're vampires. We're bloodsucking vampires with constant lust for blood and yet we've somehow managed to bring a human child into our home and are planning to raise her as a Cullen. That's something that I would have never thought possible in all my years of immortality.

It's amazing how such a small and fragile child can have such a difference in our life's. A little pale baby with dark brown eyes, a little bit of brown hair, and soft fragile skin. A perfect human child. Well, perfect except for the cold and that dark cold of gloom that seemed to loom over me. Fragile. She's just so fragile. I feel as if anything she touches will her her or get her sick.

Just take now for example. She's got a cold and got it from touching something or multiple things with harmful bacteria. She can get sick so easily and that makes me feel awful. I want her safe and happy and healthy all at the same time.

**Author's Note: Yes, I know it's very short but I'm just trying Edward's P.O.V out. I want to know if you think I should do more from his P.O.V.? Please keep reviewing!**


	6. Chapter 4 Ending

**Author's Note: While in this chapter I will be continuing Edward's P.O.V. I'm still not sure if I should continue with it any further. His P.O.V. May become an on again off again sort of thing. Anyway, hope you enjoy the rest of Chapter 4! By the way, in this part of the book Edward's bedroom is not the same as it was in the original Twilight books due to the slight time period difference. **

I was extremely grateful that Jasper had put Bella to sleep but as the night grew darker a problem arose. If Jasper left Bella's bedroom, even for just a moment, she would wake up and begin crying quite furiously. Carlisle said that it was crucial that Bella got lots of sleep tonight to give her immune system a chance to help her so, just for tonight, Jasper had agreed to stay in Bella's room for the night so she could rest with the help of his powers.

Of course this fixed one problem only to cause another for me. For the rest of the night thoughts of Jasper were the center of thought in the Cullen household which was becoming increasingly annoying,

_This must be putting a lot of stress on Jasper,_ was a concerned Esme's thought process.

_My poor Jazzy. At least Bella's asleep,_ thought Alice. Alice's thoughts seemed to be entering her mind just as quickly as they entered tonight. One moment she was worried about her mate Jasper and the next she was looking into the future at Bella trying to decide exactly how long her cold would last. At the moment it seemed Bella's cold would last around 46 more hours. Then there was Emmett.

_Gosh, sweet little Bella must be feeling awful. I wonder how Jasper's holding up? I think the Detroit Lions are playing the Minnesota Vikings this weekend. I hope I can Jasper to bet on that game without Alice butting in._ I rolled my eyes at those last couple of comments. Emmett's thoughts were always relatively calm and relaxed even in stressful situations. He always seemed to keep a positive outlook on everything. Rosalie, who had run out and bought every baby magazine she could find the second Bella was asleep, is the complete opposite,

_Oh, there's so much to learn! I have _got _to know everything about babies know that I have a daughter. God, I can't believe she's sick. I have got to disinfect this house! I will not have her getting sick again. _Rosalie's mind began rambling on about all sorts of different baby things. I was worried about Bella as well but I wasn't nearly as worried as she was. Humans have a tendency to get sick rather quickly but one thing that Carlisle had taught me was that just as quickly as human got sick they could get better. I would tell her to calm down but I knew it would just make her angry. Truthfully, if Jasper wasn't busy with Bella I'd probably ask him to calm Rosalie down.

Around 2:30 AM I had had enough of everyone's thoughts. I ran up the stairs to my bedroom. My bedroom was a corner room and two walls were completely covered with window. I walked over to my black CD player and pressed play. A _Green Day _CD began playing. I turned up the volume as loud as it would go and sat down on my brown couch. As I listened to the music I began tuning out everyone's thoughts.

I sat like that for hours and would have continued to sit like that if Jasper's thoughts hadn't broken through my head at around 5:00. He was practically screaming his thoughts,

_Gotta help Bella. Focus. Focus. _I continued listening and realized that Jasper was pushing himself too far. I thought about it and Bella had been asleep since 11 PM so he'd been using his powers non-stop for six hours. Six hours of constant power use was way too much for Jasper and he knew it but he just didn't want Bella to be sick anymore. He kept thinking about how Carlisle had said that Bella needed lots of sleep. I sighed and left my room and went to Bella's. When I got there I fount Jasper crouched in a corner, eyes black and wild. He was so focused on his powers that he didn't seem to even notice I was in the room which is very unusual for a vampire. I walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. His eyes snapped up to meet mine.

"Get up, Jasper. Take a break and go hunting."

"But Bella-"

"Bella's fine. I'll take care of it, just go hunting. You need it." He nodded and silently got up and headed for the door. When he reached the door he turned back and said,

"Thanks."

"No problem. Just go take care of yourself." He nodded and left the room. Sure enough, within a moment Bella was awake and crying. I walked over to her crib and picked her up. I soothed, "Shh, Bella. It's okay Bella." Her poor little nose was running again so I got tissue and wiped her nose before throwing it in a trash bin. Everyone's thoughts were racing through my head but I ignored them.

"I bet you're hungry by now, aren't you?" I quickly made her a little bottle and put it in her mouth. She immediately began drinking and I smiled to myself. She was just hungry. Once she was finished I took the bottle from her. She was no longer crying but she wasn't sleeping either. I put Eddie the Bunny in her hands and began rocking her in my arms. It took a few minutes but she did fall asleep eventually. I then laid her down in her crib and pulled her little blanket over her body.

_Nice job, bro, _Emmett thought. As I looked at the sleeping form of Bella I couldn't help but be a little proud of myself.

_Thank goodness Bella's finally sleeping on her own. That's got to be a good sign, _thought Rosalie. Everyone's thoughts were relatively similar. Esme thought,

_I'm so glad she's asleep without Jasper's help._

_Thank God she's sleeping on her own. Jasper needed a break,_ was Alice's main thought. Even Carlisle, who's thoughts had been pretty quiet tonight, was relieved,

_Good. She's asleep. Now she'll begin to feel better. _I hoped he was right.

**Author's Note: I'm thinking of skipping ahead to her birthday. What to do you think?**


	7. Update!

**Author's Note: I'm sorry it's taking so long but the birthday chapter is taking longer than expected! It will be up soon though!**

**Anyway, one of you wonderful reviewers suggested a Jasper/Bella thing. What do the rest of you think of that for later on?**

**Thanks for your patience!**


	8. Chapter 5

2 Year's Later

No P.O.V

"Happy Birthday Bella!" The Cullen's all cheered as little Bella hid her face in a couch pillow, blushing ferociously. It was her second birthday and Alice had Bella dressed in a little pink top with a large red heart in the center, a pair of blue jean capris, and pink tennis shoes.

'Little' Bella wasn't quite as little as she used to be. She can walk pretty well now though she usually chooses not because she's very clumsy. She can talk very well and piece together average sentences and she can read some words in very familiar bedtime stories. Her brown hair is now wavy and down to her shoulders and she was much taller.

Over the past couple years what she seems to have really picked up on is what the Cullen's were. Even though when she first arrived at the Cullen's doorstep she knew they were vampires but didn't really understand what that meant. Now that she has been to the playground and seen what other humans look like and has overheard conversations with the Cullen's she seems to have slowly pieced together what a vampire is.

Another thing going on with Bella is that, while she loves all the Cullen's, she is much more affectionate towards Edward. The moment Bella was finished hiding her face in a pillow she went pack to her previous spot, sitting on Edward's lap. He whispered in her ear,

"Happy birthday, little girl." She smiled a little. Alice spoke up,

"Ok Bella, what do you want first? Cake or presents?" Bella answered instantly,

"Cake." Within two seconds Alice was holding a small singular cake in her hands. For such a small cake it was quite pretty. The chocolate layer cake was covered in a thick layer of buttercream icing covering it, red icing drawn red roses all around the top of the cake, a thin layer of chocolate shavings on the top, and blue stripes of icing around the cake. Then, in the very center was a large sparkling neon blue '2' candle.

She lit the candle and all the Cullen's sang 'Happy Birthday.' When they finished the song Bella began to blow out the candle. It took her two tries but she blew did succeed and everyone clapped for her.

Edward held the cake while Bella ate it with a little fork. When she hate eaten all she could eat Alice took the cake away and it was time to move onto presents which made Bella very unhappy.

"Why do we have to have pwesents?" Bella asked with a frown on her face. Carlisle said,

"Your the only girl in the world that doesn't like gifts." It was true. Little Bella really didn't like presents. She frowned and said,

"I don't see the point." Alice said impatiently,

"Well your getting presents anyway." Bella huffed. Rosalie smiled and cheered,

"Mine first!" Rosalie then came to sit next to Edward and Bella, handing Bella a medium sized package wrapped in blue wrapping paper. Bella cautiously began unwrapping it. I was a little pink princess music box! She opened it and 'When you Wish Upon a Star' began playing. Bella half-smiled and gave Rosalie a small hug,

"Thank you Mommy."

Then, much to Bella's disapproval, everyone gave her presents. Jasper gave her a camouflage teddy bear with several outfits for the bear, Emmett gave her a shiny blue kiddy car, Alice gave her five complete outfits, Esme gave her a a collection of children's books, Carlisle gave her a to doctors kit, and Edward gave her the gift she enjoyed the most.

Edward gave her a necklace with three silver heart-shaped charms. Each charm was engraved with one word. 'Hale', 'Whitlock', and 'Cullen.'

Bella's eyes lit up with joy and surprise. Edward put the necklace on her and then she hugged him tightly.

"It is very pwetty." Edward chuckled before saying,

"I'm glad you like it Bella." Bella spent the rest of the day playing with the doctor kit and getting Edward to read the children's books to her. If she fount a story she really liked she would get him to read the story over and over.

She then coaxed Alice into playing doctor with her. She spent an hour pretending to examine Alice while she laid still on the living room floor. Next Emmett attempted to teach Bella how to drive her little car outside.

But even though she understood how to do it and she could do it, she just wasn't in the mood. Truth be told, she was very worn out. So Emmett took her inside and fed her some mac-n-cheese before heading up to her bedroom. Her room was extremely similar except it no longer had the baby supplies and instead had a little pink Blues Clues bed.

He tucked her in and was leaving when she asked,

"Will you read me a story Daddy?" Emmett smiled and said,

"Sure girly. What do you want me to read?" She replied instantly,

"If You Give A Mouse A Cookie!" Emmett laughed and said jokingly,

"I should have known." So he began reading the story to her. Once he was finished she was almost asleep. She murmured,

"'Night, Daddy. I love you." He kissed her forehead.

"I love you too girly. Sleep tight." She then slept soundly through the night, happy and content, awaiting another day to play with her wonderful family.

**Author's Note: Thinking the next chapter should be her first day of preschool. I've got a great plot idea for that one! What do you think?**

**Oh and as you've probably noticed, when Bella speaks she often uses 'w.' Isn't that cute?**

**Hope you enjoyed!**


	9. Chapter 6

Around 1 Year Later

'Moving Day'

Bella was now 3 years old and it was time for the Cullen's to leave Forks. They had already decided there next location would be Union, New York. The city had an average of only 4.6 days a year that aren't cloudy. It was 8 o'clock PM and all the Cullen's were out hunting except for Jasper and, of course, Bella.

Jasper could sense that Bella was upset about leaving Forks but she put on a brave face and kept telling everyone that she was fine. Currently she was stretched out on the couch with her head resting on one of Jasper's legs while they watched TV. He asked for the tenth time,

"Are you okay, Bells?" She sniffled and said,

"Of course I am." He sighed and sat her up in his lap.

"You know I can tell your not okay." She muttered,

"Stupid talent." He chuckled but then became serious and asked,

"Do you wanna talk about it?" She shrugged but he could tell she really wanted to so he added, "It might help. You never know." She sighed and lamented,

"I'm going to miss it here. It's my home." She wrapped her arms around him and he slowly did the same.

"I know but you'll love Union. I promise."

"Yeah. I just wish I could take a little bit of this place with me." Then Jasper had an idea,

"That can be arranged. Stay here," he sat her down and before she could blink twice he had returned holding a glass jar with a wooden lid, a black Sharpie, and one of Bella's handheld kiddy shovels.

"What's that stuff for Jazz?" He smiled and said,

"You'll see. Now, come on." they walked outside were it was quickly getting dark. They walked into the grass and Jasper sat down so Bella did the same. He took the lid off the jar and handed the shovel to Bella.

"Bells, dig up the grass and dirt and put it in the jar till its full." She looked at him like he was crazy and asked,

"Why?"

"You'll see." She sighed and nodded. When she was finished the jar was full of grass, dirt, and pebbles and there was a little hole in the ground where they sat. Just about that time everyone ascended from the forest and gathered around them with curiosity. Alice asked,

"Um...Whatcha doing, hon?" Bella glared at her and said sternly,

"If he won't tell me then he can't tell you." So they watched Jasper as he put the wooden lid back on the jar and wrote with Sharpie on the lid 'FORKS WASHINGTON.' He then put the cap on the Sharpie and spoke with his southern lilt,

"There you go Bella. Now you'll always have a part of Forks with you." She gasped and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug.

"Thank you so much Jazzy!" He chuckled and said,

"Your welcome Bells." They stood up with Jasper holding the jar and everyone else was smiling. Rosalie took Bella's hand and said,

"Alright, time for someone to take there bath and get ready for bed." Rosalie led Bella up to Bella's bathroom and gave her a bath before putting her in a pair of purple pajamas and tucked Bella into bed.

"Get some sleep Bella. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow." Unfortunately, Bella was wide awake because, thanks to Jasper, Bella was no longer upset and was now excited. She complained,

"But I'm not tired, Mommy." Rosalie smiled and said,

"Well just try and sleep. I'm sure you'll be asleep before you know it." Oh boy, she couldn't have been more wrong.

Bella stayed awake all night. She was too excited about moving to get any sleep. Her made was racing, wondering what her new home would be like. At around 4:30 AM Rosalie stopped trying to get Bella to sleep and let her come downstairs with everyone else. She sat her down on Emmett's lap. Emmett greeted,

"Hey girly. Couldn't sleep?" Bella replied,

"Nope." So they turned on cartoons and Rosalie made Bella a glass of milk and put a packet of vanilla flavoring in it, just the way Bella likes it. They watched cartoons and talked until around 6 when Alice took Bella upstairs and dressed her in a little yellow strapless dress with bright flowers on it and yellow shows.

Due to the fact that they furnished the home in Union, they didn't need to bring anything but clothes and because of there vampire speed, they were ready by seven. All that was left was to feed Bella breakfast. Edward made her a plate of French toast and a glass of chocolate milk. Once that was done they loaded up the cars. Rosalie, Emmett, Edward, and Bella were in the Edwards car and the others were in Carlisle's car.

Because there really strong and fast they knew Bella was perfectly safe in the car so at the moment she was laying in Edward's lap in the backseat while Emmett drove and Rosalie sat in the passenger seat. Normally, the long drive would take around 22 hours but at the speed Emmet was driving they'd be there in 12.

When they reached Union it was raining. Bella watched as they passed many houses and building but didn't stop. They finally drove down around with no house. In fact there was nothing but trees surrounding the road.

The road, to Bella, seemed to go on forever. She thought they may never reach her new home. Finally she saw ahead of her a large house that looked like a cottage and had green vines covering parts of it. The windows were large but not nearly as large as the one's at the house in Forks. Right next to it was a garage and the yard was huge with large oak trees in it. It was, in a word, gorgeous. Emmett cheered,

"Welcome to your new home, Bella!"


	10. Chapter 7

The inside of this new house gave a much different feel than the house in Forks. The living room walls were painted a hazel color and the rest of the room followed the color scheme of different shades of brown. It was surprisingly welcoming. The whole family was eager to show Bella her new bedroom. They all lead her up the stairs to the second floor and Alice put her hands in front of Bella's eyes. When Alice moved her hands, Bella gasped.

The room was large and done up entirely in light purple. The room consisted of a little purple bed, a TV, three purple shelves of children books, an assortment of toys and stuffed animals, and perched in the window sill sat Eddie the Bunny.

"Eddie!" Bella ran over to Eddie and picked him up. Rosalie asked,

"Do you like your new room?" Bella nodded shyly. Alice asked hopefully,

"Do you want to see your closet?" Bella replied,

"Not really." Alice frowned but everyone else laughed. Bella yawned and Emmett walked over asked,

"You tired, girly?"

"Nope," she lied. Unfortunately her blush gave it away.

"Mmm. Why don't we go downstairs and get you some dinner and then get you into bed?"

"I guess, Daddy."

"Alright then. Come on," he held out his hand and Bella took it. They walked downstairs and Bella was surprised at how big and open there new white kitchen was. Emmett helped Bella climb up onto one of the big white kitchen chairs at the kitchen table.

"What would you like for dinner?" She replied,

"Grilled cheese." So that's what she had for dinner. While she ate Emmett told her all about how much fun she would have starting pre-school tomorrow,

"...and Edward's gonna stay with you all day." Bella's eyes lit up at that.

"Really? He is?"

"Yeah I am," Edward appeared at the kitchen doorway. "I'm going to stay with you all day for your first day." Bella jumped down from her chair and ran over to him. He picked her up and she hugged him tight.

"Yay!" Most of Bella's nerves wiped away. She didn't need to worry because she wouldn't be alone.

After that, Emmett gave Bella a bath and put her in a pair of butterfly pajamas. He laid her in bed and picked up the book One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. He read a little before saying,

"Here, you try." He handed Bella the book and she began where he left off,

"W-w-why are t-t-th-ey s-sad and g-glad and bad? I d-d-do n-n-ot know. Go a-a-as-s-ask your dad." She continued reading, sounding out most of the words. She would occasionally have to stop and ask Emmett to help her but other than that she read most of it on her own. When she was finished Emmett took the book and cheered,

"Good job! You did great Bella!" She blushed and murmured,

"Thank you." Emmett kissed her forehead and said,

"Good night, girly. Get some sleep, you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow."

"'Night Daddy."

Despite her nerves about preschool and her unfamiliarity with her new bedroom, she managed to get some sleep.

"Wake up, baby," Rosalie gently shook Bella. Bella groaned,

"No..." Rosalie chuckled and said,

"Yes, honey. You gotta get up so we can get you ready for school." Bella suddenly sat up,

"School? Oh yeah." Rosalie smiled and said,

"Come on." Rosalie helped give Bella a bath and then dressed her in a white t-shirt with a sparkly yellow star on it, a pair of blue jeans, and yellow shoes. Rosalie then brushed Bella's hair before asking if Bella wanted her hair up which Bella declined. So they went downstairs and Bella had a bowl of cereal while Alice snapped tons of pictures. After awhile Bella noticed everyone was staring at her.

"What?" She asked. Esme said,

"Oh nothing, honey. This is just a big day." Bella sighed and finished eating. Once she was done Alice brought out Bella's new backpack. It was little and pink with colorful butterflies and flowers on it. Alice then had Bella stand by the door while she took lots of Bella. Then they all took turns taking pictures with a blushing Bella until I was time for Bella and Edward to leave. They were about to leave when Bella yelled,

"Wait!"

"What?" Edward asked. Bella ran up stairs and grabbed Eddie the Bunny before running back downstairs. She said sternly,

"Eddie's going to school too." Edward laughed and they got in his car and headed to Endicott Preschool.

The school was an old grey building that looked very drab which made the large and colorful playground stick out like a sore thumb. Edward parked in the small parking lot and walked around to the other side to open Bella's door. She didn't move. He said,

"Come on, Bella." Still, she didn't move. He smiled a little and said, "Don't worry Bella, it'll be fine."

"Promise?"

"Promise." Finally she got out of the car and took his hand. They walked into the school and down a white hallway into a classroom. The classroom was large with lots of little tables and toys and a huge chalkboard. A short lady with red hair dressed in pastels came over to them and said in a cheery tone,

"Welcome to preschool! I'm Miss Tufter and who are you?"

"Bella," she answered in a small voice and then said, "This is Edward."

"Well hello! You two can sit down and class will start shortly." So the day began...


	11. Chapter 8

When class began, all the adults that came stood or sat around the walls while all the kids were given places to sit at each of the little tables. Bella was told to sit at a little blue table in the back of the room. At that table also was a little girl with long and wavy orange hair and brown eyes. There was also a boy with short brown hair and freckles. The orange haired girl introduced herself.

"Hi I'm Dana!" Bella said shyly,

"I'm Bella," and the brown haired boy said,

"Hey, my name is Jason." Dana asked Bella,

"What's your bunnies name?"

"Eddie." Jason asked,

"Doesn't he have a full name?" Bella blushed and admitted,

"Edward Mason Cullen Jr." Edward, who was perched against a wall a few feet away, looked in her direction with a raised eyebrow but Bella ignored it, her face burning red. After that, Bella asked about the doll that Dana had brought with her. Dana's doll had long black hair and Dana said her name was Rose.

Shortly after that, Miss Tufter went around the room and had all the kids say there name and there favorite color. Dana's favorite color was yellow and Jason's favorite color was green. Bella blushed as she said her name and told the class her favorite color was purple.

After that, the class sang the Miss Tufter gave them all cubbies to put there backpacks in. Bella's cubby was right next to Dana's on the far side of the room. Then the teacher put crayons on each table and a large piece of white paper. The teacher told them to draw what ever they wanted on the paper. Jason took a green crayon and mostly scribbled. Dana used an orange crayon and tried to draw the sun. Of course, she's only three so it was very messy and looked kind of like an oval.

Under Dana's sun she asked Jason to draw grass with his green crayon. Jason tried his best and it looked ok for a three year old. Then, with Bella's help, Dana drew messy purple flowers in the grass. It was an exceptionally nice drawing for a group of three year olds.

Then Miss Tufter collected the crayons and then took each tables piece of paper and clipped them to a little string that hung in the front of the classroom like a banner. After that, all the children got to play with the toys around the room. Jason went of to play with other boys while Dana and Bella played together with Bella's bunny and Dana's doll. They were having so much fun that time seemed to fly by.

Dana told Bella all about her family and introduced Bella to her Mommy who was there. Her Mommy's name was Rachel and she had short orange hair with green eyes. Then Bella told Dana about her family except for the fact that they were vampires and that Rosalie and Emmett were her actual parent not Carlisle and Esme.

Bella introduced Dana to Edward and Dana seemed to like him. When Dana and Bella and Jason sat back down at the table Dana asked why Edward was so pale. Bella tried her best to tell the story that her family had told her to tell. She began in her kiddy little voice,

"Oh well Mommy and Daddy used to live in Antarctica with my bubbies and sissies 'cause Daddy used to be a science guy who loved nature before he was a doctor. They all lived there for lots of years and that made them really pale 'cause theres not much sun there and they got some kinda skin thingy that makes there skin really cold." Bella smiled when both Dana and Jason took that as a reasonable response.

Before long, it was noon and time to go home. Bella hugged and said goodbye to Dana. Once she was in the car Edward asked,

"Did you have fun today?"

"Yes, I had lots of fun."

"Good. So you think you'll manage tomorrow without me?" Bella smiled before saying,

"Totally."

When they got home everyone was gone to schools and Carlisle was at work. So Esme was the only one home. Edward had to leave to go to school, even if he was really late.

While Esme made Bella a peanut butter sandwich and cut up some apple slices Bella told her all about her fun day at preschool and about her new friends Dana and Jason.

"That's wonderful Bella! Eat up. You must be hungry."

After that, Bella watched TV and played with Eddie until everyone came home. Alice walked through the door with a smile on her face and said cheerfully to Bella,

"Edward Mason Cullen Jr, huh?" Bella blushed ferociously, for she had forgotten about Alice's talent for seeing the future. So after Bella had told everyone about her day, Bella and Edward (mostly Edward) were teased about Eddie the Bunnies full name.

After dinner and a bath, Rosalie tucked Bella in and read her a story. Bella went to sleep that night feeling pretty confident that tomorrow would be a good day.

Over the next few days, Bella got closer and closer to her friends Jason and Dana. In fact, on Saturday Dana and Bella had a play date at a local park. The two of them played while Rosalie talked to Dana's Daddy John.

Bella loved her new house and town as much as she'd loved Forks, if not more. She couldn't believe that just a week ago she'd been so upset about leaving Forks and now she was so happy.

Bella and Dana played for several hours. They spent most of there time playing in the sand box and just talking. They talked about lots of things like there favorite foods, what they wanted to be when they grew up (Dana wanted to be a princess and Bella wanted to be a nurse), and much more. The play date only ended because it was almost dark outside. So Bella and Dana had to go home but they were both excited for another play date next week, this time at Dana's house.

**Author's note: I hope you love it! There may be some mistakes because it was wrote kinda quickly.**

**How long should the next time skip be?**


	12. Chapter 9

It's surprising how quickly a bond can form between three little kids. After only two months Bella, Dana, and Jason became practically inseparable. They spend every moment of preschool together and then Dana and Bella almost always had play dates at the park on Saturdays. On Sunday's, they all would have a play date at either Jason's or Dana's but on this particular Sunday they were going to have a play date at the Cullen's home.

Most of the Cullen's were out hunting for the day and the only one's that were home was Rosalie, Alice, and of course, Bella. Dana and Jason both arrived around 10 AM with both of there parents. Bella took Dana and Jason up to her bedroom while Alice followed them holding a camera. Rosalie and Jason and Dana's parents stayed downstairs and talked.

The three kids played until around noon and then Jason and his parents had to leave. That's when Alice made Dana and Bella lunch. Bella and Dana played until it was almost 6 PM. That's when her parents said that they needed to leave.

"Aw, do we have to leave?" Dana complained as they were about to leave.

"Yeah! I don't want you to leave yet," Bella chimed in. Dana's Mom said,

"Well..." Alice suggested,

"Why doesn't Dana spend the night? She's around the same size as Bella so she could borrow a pair of her pajamas to sleep in. Besides, there having so much fun! Plus, we could easily take Dana to preschool with Bella tomorrow."

"Oh can I?" Dana asked, suddenly excited. Dana's red haired dad said,

"I guess so. Are you sure your parents won't mind?" Rosalie spoke,

"No they won't mind. They'll be gone most of the night anyway. There out on sort of a dinner date," she ironically lied. Dana's parents both agreed and Bella and Dana cheered. When Dana's parents left the children went back to Bella's bedroom while Rosalie made dinner for the two of them.

The two girls played with Bella's dolls while watching cartoons for around an hour before Alice came in Bella's room to take them to the kitchen. For dinner Rosalie made burgers, mac-n-cheese, a side of broccoli, and cherry Kool-aid. Both Alice and Rosalie just told Dana that they weren't hungry when she asked why they weren't eating. After they finished eating they both took a bath and then Alice put them in matching pajamas, the only difference was that Bella's pajamas were blue and Dana's were pink. Around that time the rest of the Cullen's came home and Bella got to let Dana meet the whole family. Though she was happy she also fount it odd that she had to refer to Carlisle and Esme as 'Mom' and 'Dad' and had to call Rosalie and Emmett their actual names instead of 'Mommy' and 'Daddy.'

Then Emmett showed the two how to play one of his video games, Super Mario Bros. The children really didn't get it but they played until it was bedtime. Esme put them both in Bella's bed and read them a story before wishing them goodnight and leaving. They were both almost asleep when Dana asked,

"Bella?"

"Yeah?"

"I like your house. This was really fun."

"Yeah, it was." They both fell asleep with smiles on there faces.

The next morning it was odd driving to preschool because Bella didn't usually have to use a booster seat to go to school because safety wasn't an issue but today the Cullen's put two booster seats in the back of the car. Rosalie was about to take them to school when Alice came out holding Dana's little backpack which she'd forgotten she'd brought with her.

After that they headed to school. From then on, sleepovers became a regular Sunday thing. Jason, Bella, and Dana would all go to either Bella's or Dana's home. Then they'd play all day and Jason would eventually leave and Bella and Dana would have a sleepover. While they were all still good friends, it was clear that Dana and Bella were best friends. They loved spending all there time together.

The Cullen's were all glad that Bella had friends but were in a bit of a jam as they didn't know how they could pull off Bella remaining friends with Dana and Jason in a few years when they would have to move. They weren't sure how but they knew they'd have to figure it out because Alice could see that those three were going to be friends for a very long time. So Alice figured she'd just look into the future and see how they pulled it off.

As little Bella and Dana finger-painted at school they had no idea that there little friendship would turn into a lifelong friendship.

**Author's Note: I'm sorry that it's short but I wanted to get it out. I'm thinking of skipping ahead to the next time that they have to move. What do you think?**

**narniaandharrypotter4ever: Don't worry, I'm going to continue this book until Bella is somewhere in her twenties. Even then there may be a sequel!**

**Thanks to all the reviewers out there! Please keep reviewing! If your not reviewing, please start! All feedback is appreciated! **

**I promise to update soon! I also apologize for any mistakes there may be. **


	13. Chapter 10

Time is truly a humorous thing. One hour can seem very fast to one person and rather slow to another and yet, every hour is the exact same amount of time. Taking this in to account, I believe all the Cullen's would agree that there time in Union seemed to fly by.

They watched as there once tiny Bella grew into a young girl. Every year she became larger and smarter. By the first grade Bella could read most small words and even some larger words. By the second grade she could add and subtract fairly well and rarely used her fingers to count anymore. This should have been the time that they left Union but they managed to pull off staying one more year by telling everyone that the Cullen teens were putting off going to college for a year. So Bella progressed to the third grade and began learning how to multiply.

During this time Bella and Dana remained best friends. In fact, even though the Cullen's were moving to Sunrise Florida which ironically only has around 6 sunny days a year, Dana and Bella were going to maintain there friendship. This was due to a series of things that the Cullen's have done to make themselves look older than they normally appear. Edward, Carlisle, and Emmett could easily look older by simply parting there hair differently and changing there wardrobe a little. Alice and Rosalie both died there hair. Alice's hair was now black with hints of red and Rosalie's hair was now a light brunet. Of course, they had to keep dying there hair every week or so because vampire hair did not like to be dyed.

In addition to the dying her hair, Alice was know wearing glasses, the lenses had no purpose of course, and they really made her look older. Esme had cut her hair pretty short and had thinned her eyebrows because apparently eyebrows are supposed to thin with age. The Cullen teens could now pull of being any age between 20 through 27. Carlisle and Esme could now pull off any age between 35 through around 43.

Since the Cullen teens now appear to be college students thats just what they're doing. They will all be attending Sunshine University and will all be majoring in either psychology, law, or medical. Somehow things all seemed to be working in Bella's favor.

Day One of Pre-Moving Week

It was the second week of summer and Dana was spending the entire week at Bella's house before Bella moved. At the moment, they were sprawled out on the floor of the living room talking about all the times they had planned out for them to visit each other. In addition to that they each had to large square white poster boards and lots of colorful markers that they were writing the schedule down on so that they could put in there bedrooms. So far, both schedules looked something like this:

Bella's Visits to Union:

1. July 9th through the 12th

2. November 21st through 23rd (during Thanksgiving Break)

3. December 17th through the 20th (during Christmas Break

4. Valentine's Day Weekend

5. Easter Weekend

6. A week for Dana's birthday!

Dana's Visits to Sunshine:

1. One week while Cullen's move into new home

2. September 9th through the 12th (two days off from school)

3. October 3rd through the 6th (a long weekend)

4. December 26th through the 30th (during Christmas Break)

5. March 5th through the 8th (another long weekend)

6. Spring break

7. Two weeks for Bella's birthday since its in the summer!

They finished there posters just as Emmett walked in. Over the past few years Emmett and Dana have become pals. Emmett asked slyly,

"What you two up to? Talking about how awesome I am?"

"Not likely," Dana joked. Emmett feigned hurt before responding,

"Come on, you know you love me!" Bella changed the subject before Dana could retort,

"Actually, we were making posters to keep track of our visit plans."

"Hmm, cool. Hey maybe later you guys can play some video games with me." Bella scowled and replied,

"Yeah right. You cream us at video games everytime." Dana added,

"Besides, Esme promised she'd order pizza later and then we're gonna have a movie marathon tonight. You can join us if you want."

"Ah, we'll see," then he left the room. Shortly after, the fun began.

Esme ordered pizza as promised and Alice made popcorn and Kool-aid for Bella and Dana. Those two watched two movies with just each other but Alice joined them for the third one. The third movie was a comedy and they spent most of the time laughing there butts of which somehow along the way started a pillow fight.

They fought with the pillows laughing and playing until Esme came downstairs and told them not to because the might break something. So the went upstairs were Alice did there fingernails. Below wasn't usually into that kind of thing but she had lots of fun when her and Dana forced Alice into letting them paint her nails. They painted her nails an obnoxious bright green color and laughed so hard at the expression on her face.

If that wasn't fun enough they did end up playing some racing game but they played with Rosalie to and Dana and Emmett was one team and Rosalie and Bella was the other. They had lots of fun because both teams one twice and watching Emmett punch the air when he lost was priceless. It had been a great day.

**A/N: Two updates in two days! Woah! **

**Oh and yay! It's the tenth finished chapter!**

**Ps: sorry for any mistakes!**


	14. Chapter 11

Bella's last week in Union went by in the blink of an eye. Bella and Dana had spent every waking moment together. Dana was supposed to go to Sunshine to stay with the Cullen's for a few days but at the last minute she couldn't go because she got sick. Bella was upset that Dana couldn't travel with them to Sunshine but she wanted Dana to feel better.

The journey to Sunshine was long and tiresome. They traveled all day and still weren't there so they stopped in a rainy city and checked into a hotel suite so Bella could sleep and eat a good meal. The next morning they continued there journey, stopping occasionally so Bella could eat and use the restroom. They arrived in the rainy town of Sunshine at 7 PM.

The town was small and the large college seemed to be the main attraction to the city and responsible for most of its population. Due to the fact that the town was full of college students, there were very little house and the majority of housing was apartments. Because of this the Cullens had bought the largest apartment in town. It was the entire top floor of an apartment building called The Sherman. The living room was gorgeous.

**A/N: I couldn't find a way to describe the living room in my head so here's a link to a picture that looks like the living room I had in mind: . ?m=1**

**It's the last picture on the page.**

Bella's bedroom was even better. (** entry/31972723#**) Bella loved it! It was nice and cozy and she thought it was perfect. She walked over to her closet and when she saw it, she frowned. (** entry/17771282**) the shelves were full of clothes.

"Alice!" Bella called. When Alice appeared she asked in an innocent voice,

"Yes, Bella?" Bella groaned,

"Was this really necessary?" Alice said sternly,

"Yes. You should learn to love clothes, it would do you some good."

"Doubtful," Bella muttered as Alice left the room. Alice pretended not to notice. Bella stretched out on her bed and relaxed for a while before going downstairs and playing the game Life with Jasper, Alice, and Edward. Jasper was in the the lead when Alice's eyes glazed over. After a few moments Edwards face darkened, hearing whatever vision Alice was having. When the vision stopped Alice snarled,

"James."

**A/N: Sorry it's so short! I'll update again tomorrow, I promise! Excitement!**


	15. Chapter 12

"James is coming here. He was passing through a near by town when he caught wind of our fresh scent and he could smell Bella's scent with it. He's coming to see why we have a human here." All the Cullen's were gathered in the living room. Rosalie and Bella were next to each other and Rosalie had her arm wrapped around Bella and was holding her tight.

Bella shuddered because, while she didn't know much about this James, she did know enough. She knew that he preferred humans over animals and Carlisle had described him as a vicious creature. When Carlisle refers to someone as vicious you know it must be true. Rosalie asked,

"Could one of us just run with Bella and return when he's gone?" Edward shook his head but Alice was the one to reply,

"It's too late. He'll be here any moment." Edward added,

"Not to mention, if one of us ran with Bella he would most likely just leave and follow Bella's scent."

Bella was no longer listening. She was trying to picture this vampire in her mind but all she could see was a pair of mean, terrifyingly red eyes. She was trying to take deep breaths to keep herself calm but she was finding it increasingly hard to breath, one of her natural reactions to fear. Bella had grown up in a house full of vampires and yet she'd never really been exposed to the level of fear that coursed through her veins as she thought about James.

"It's possible that we're overreacting to this. It is extremely probable that he truly is just curious and once we explain he will leave," Esme reasoned. Bella looked around the room, praying for some sort of confirmation that Esme's words may ring true. Carlisle put a hand on Esme's shoulder but said nothing. Emmett asked,

"Is Victoria coming with him?" Edward nodded.

"Who's Victoria?" Bella asked, trying to keep her voice even.

"She's James's bitch mate." Of course that was Emmett's response.

"Emmett!" Esme chastised. Emmett rolled his eyes before continuing,

"I wouldn't worry. It's not like we're outnumbered or something. If they don't want to play nice we could easily kick some nomad ass."

"Dad!" Bella was the one to chastise this time. The thought of her family fighting with other vampires was awful. She couldn't bare the thought that someone in he family could possibly be hurt. There was no more time to talk though because Edward said quietly,

"There in the elevator." Everyone stood. Rosalie flattened Bella's hair down and kissed her forehead which Bella fount quite odd.

"Are you seriously trying to mask her scent? It's everywhere," Jasper said. They all stood in silence for what seemed like hours to Bella but was most likely minutes until there was a slight knock on the door. Bella tried to calm herself by keeping her breaths even with Jaspers, who was standing right next to her. Emmett opened the door and in walked the two most terryfing creatures Bella had ever seen.

Victoria had fiery red hair that looked almost unnatural with her pale skin and James had long light brown hair that seemed to reach down past his chest. The terrifying part were the eyes. They were not the awful red that she had imagined. They were stone cold black. The universal sign that a vampire was hungry. Bella gulped. Carlisle spoke calmly,

"Hello. It is nice to see you two again. What brings you to the area?" James spoke smoothly,

"Well, we'd just finished a family up both a couple miles and we were on our way to Miami to do some night hunting when we noticed your scent." He said this to Carlisle but his eyes were on Bella, making her shudder. Carlisle pretended to be unaware.

"Yes we'll I believe your only familiar with Edward, Esme, and myself. Allow me to introduce you to the rest of my family. This is Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, and Bella."

"Bella," James whispered. "What use do you have with a human?"

"It's quite a long story but in summary, Rosalie and Emmett have raised Bella since she was a mere baby." Victoria growled,

"But she's human!" Victoria and James took a step closer to Bella and Rosalie hissed at them. Bella's heart felt as though I was going to burst out of her chest it was beating so hard. Carlisle continued calmly,

"Yes she is human, Victoria. She is also family to us. You would do well to remember that." Victoria straightened slightly but James took another step towards me. Emmett stepped in front of him, blocking Bella's view.

"Going somewhere?" Emmett asked. Something in Emmett's tone set James off. Maybe James was looking for a fight. He grabbed Emmett's arm and tried to push passed him but Emmett knocked James in the jaw with his shoulder and he stumbled back a few steps. Then things got confusing.

Everyone was moving too fast for Bella to really see but from what Bella could tell, James had attacked Emmett and Rosalie had then pounced on James. At that point Victoria tried to intervene and was attacked by Alice and Jasper. The others were simultaneously helping the fights.

It was clear that James and Victoria were losing miserably but they were still fighting. Then Bella noticed something. It seemed as though Victoria and James were slowly moving the fight. Like they were trying to position themselves towards something. Bella looked around herself and was suddenly terrified that they were moving towards her. Bella was so scared that she had stopped breathing.

She quickly realized though that she was wrong. They were going the wrong way to be trying to get to her, so what were they doing? Whatever they were doing Edward and Alice were obviously aware of what was happening because they were fighting harder than the others. But with so many people involved in the fight it was complicated because they were all up on each other and were trying really hard to hurt Victoria and James instead of accidentally hurting each other.

Bella realized a moment to late what Victoria and James were doing. Once they were close enough, they both latched arms and jumped out the open window and on to the dark street. Emmett hollered,

"Damn," before jumping out after them. Seconds later, after a moments hesitation, both Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper followed.

My parents aren't here! Alice and Jasper aren't here! That seemed to be my train of thought for several minutes. I couldn't believe they went after this psychopaths! I wasn't sure why, but I felt as though those two vampires were somehow stronger than my family. I'm sure that's probably just 'cause I'm worried though.

"They'll be fine," everyone kept saying. They told me not to worry because they would be home any minute. I didn't believe them and apparently I had a good reason because they weren't back all night. I sat on one of the couches for hours, just staring at the window. My family told me I should rest but, how could I?

I don't know why I watched the window, because surely when they came home they'd come through the door. It just seemed as though staring out the window would make everything better. I must have fallen asleep at some point and when I awoke I was laying in my bed.

**_A/N: Sorry for any mistakes. Review!_**


	16. Chapter 13

When Bella awoke in her bedroom for a moment she felt content. Then the memories of the previous night came rushing in to her brain and her lungs suddenly felt as though she'd been punched in the stomach and had all the air knocked out of her. Her mind was full of unanswered questions.

Was everyone home now? Was everyone alright? If not, who had been hurt? She sighed and climbed down off her bed. She walked over to her overly large closet and searched through it until she fount a red cotton top and a pair of jeans. Once she was dressed she walked out of her room warily, terrified that she might find that the rest of her family was not home.

She took a few cautious steps down the hall before she encountered Emmett. She wrapped her arms around him and exclaimed,

"Dad! Your back!" Emmett hugged her and said,

"Of course I'm back, girly." Then Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper appeared in the hallway. Bella next embraced Rosalie before tightly hugging Jasper. Jasper was a bit taken aback by this because he was, of course, not use to any form of affection from a human. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her before relaxing considerably. Once she had hugged Alice the whole family gathered around in the living room.

Edward brought a tray of blueberry crepes, hash browns, a handful of grapes, and a glass of milk to Bella. That was one perk of being a human Cullen. The family loved to try out different recipes on Bella which meant she usually ate gourmet meals because they were all excellent cooks, especially Edward. Bella ate in silence as she listened to Alice tell the tale of what had happened when Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, and her jumped out the window.

"It was a hard chase. James was following Victoria and she's extremely fast and very good at managing to find ways to escape. They ran through the University and for a while there scent disappeared amongst the scent of humans. We all ran around the school for around two hours trying to pick up the scent again. I tried to see where they were but it was hard to get a clear vision with all the humans around them which are harder to see than vampires.

"We were about to give up and come back when Rose picked up there scent at the park on campus. It took awhile but we eventually caught up to them at a neighboring town. We had them cornered when Victoria managed to slip past Em and Rose. While we were distracted, focusing on her, James followed after her. We lost them but we followed there scent until it disappeared at a river.

"Emmett wanted to split up and follow the river in both directions in the hopes of finding the scent again but I didn't envision them returning so we decided it was time to come home." There was a semi-long silence while everyone processed the intake of information. Finally, Bella sighed in relief, simultaneously letting all of the fear she'd felt through the night flow out of her body. She said,

"Well I'm glad you came home when you did. You guys scared me half to death!" Emmett, who was sitting next to her, wrapped an arm around her before saying,

"You worry too much." She frowned before looking at Alice and Rosalie and threatening,

"If you ever do something like that again I swear to you that I will dress in nothing but red hot pants and yellow tank tops for the rest of my life, just to haunt you!" Rosalie grimaced and Alice visibly shuddered.

"Speaking of which..." Alice jumped up from where she was sitting and grabbed Bella's arm pulling her up, "...I need to teach you how to use your wardrobe!" Luckily Edward grabbed the tray in Bella's lap before it clattered to the floor. Bella groaned as she was pulled into her bedroom and into the closet. She tried to protest but it was futile against Alice's persistence. Alice spent an hour telling Bella how to use her closet appropriately but Bella only kinda listened to her. After that, Alice dressed Bella in a pair of slim black capris with a light green butterfly pattern on the side of the right leg, a light green top with a pink v-neck, and a pair of light green flat shoes.

While it was definetly not the kind of outfit she would have chosen for herself she had to admit that she thought she looked alright in it.

That day, everyone walked around as if it was any normal day. Rosalie made Bella mushroom soup with crackers and sweet tea for lunch and watched TV together. Everyone was fairly relaxed and seemed to have overcome the previous night's action. Everyone but Bella. That night when she went to sleep she awoke screaming in the middle of the night after having an extremely vivid dream of James and Victoria coming back for her. Her family, who had instantly ran to her room, tried to calm her and assure her everything was alright but they couldn't fully convince her. She spent several more nights loosing sleep on the subject.

Nevertheless, the days passed and neither James nor Victoria reappeared and Bella slowly relaxed. It took awhile but she had fully recovered when Dana came to visit on July 9th. Bella had been quite excited for Dana's visit as she had missed her friend very much. When Dana arrived the first thing Bella did was show Dana her bedroom and massive closet.

"Oh my gosh Bella! Your room is awesome and that is the biggest closet I've ever seen!" Bella smiled slightly before replying,

"I know right? So what do you wanna do?" Dana smiled and pulled two pieces of pink paper out of her suitcase. She explained,

"It's a test to see how strong a friendship is. We both take it and then grade each others. If we each get five or less right then we have an okay friendship, 6 through 10 right and it's a good friendship, 11 through 20 right and it's an awesomely strong best friendship, 21 through 24 and it's an unbreakable best friendship, and if we get all 25 right then we're practically sisters. Do you wanna take it?"

"Sure," Bella agreed. So they both fount pencils to use to fill it out. They both laid on the there stomachs on the floor and Bella looked over the questions;

Your Friends Favorites:

1. Food?

2. Color?

3. Type of music?

4. Band?

5. Type of clothing to wear?

6. Place to go?

7. Type of candy?

8. Holiday?

9. Vacation?

10. Beverage?

General Information About Friend:

11. Middle name?

12. Birthday?

13. Parent's names?

14. Birthplace?

15. Grandparent's names?

16. Home address?

17. Phone number?

18. Sibling's names (if any)?

19. Any birthmarks?

20. Preschool they attended?

Other:

21. What animal does your friend most closely resemble?

22. What is your friends worst fear?

23. Does your friend have any pets? If so what are there name(s)?

24. What's your friends doctors name?

25. Does your friend like telling jokes?

This test consumed a large portion of there evening. They were both extremely pleased (though not surprised) to learn they had both scored perfectly on the test making them 'practically sisters.' After that, Edward made pasta and garlic bread for dinner which all the Cullen's except for Bella pretended to eat. After that they watched a scary movie before taking showers and heading to bed.

They then enjoyed a few nice and peaceful days together before Dana returned to her home in Union.

**A/N: I believe I'll spend a little more time writing about her time in Sunshine than I did about her time in Union. Review please!**


	17. Chapter 14

**A/N: Please review! If you are reviewing, thank you! Sorry if there are any mistakes, let me know. Enjoy!**

The rest of summer seems to fly by. The Cullen's have finally become settled in Sunshine. All the Cullen teens will be attending college during the day except for Jasper and Alice who will be taking mainly night classes. Bella was not particularly keen on going to school in Sunshine because she feared she wouldn't make new friends. The Cullens new that her making friends probably was nothing to be concerned about but they didn't want to send her to the school in Sunshine for a completely different reason.

The only elementary school in Sunshine did not offer any sort of advanced classes but of course most elementary schools don't. Nevertheless, Bella is still a fairly advanced child and that is why they have decided to homeschool Bella. Jasper had volunteered, warily, to be her teacher one night while all the Cullens were gathered in the living room except for Rosalie who was making Bella dinner. A shocked Carlisle asked,

"Really? Are you sure?" Jasper nods and replies,

"Yes. It may be nice, plus it'll give me something to do while you all are at school." Alice, who was sitting next to him, murmurs,

"I can think of something for us to do while there gone." Jasper winks and respond smoothly,

"We'll have plenty of time for that." Edward clears his throat, clearly not enjoying their thoughts. Esme looks at Bella, who is sitting next to Jasper in her blue pajamas. Esme asks her,

"Well Bella? Would you like Jasper to be your teacher?" Bella purses her lips for a moment, deliberating. After a moment she replies,

"Definetly." She then hugs Jasper affectionately. Rosalie enters the room and says,

"Well I guess thats decided then. Come on Bella, it's time for dinner."

"Come on Bella. Walk a little faster," Alice said impatiently. It was the Cullen's first day in college and Bella's first day as Jasper being her teacher. Alice is holding her hands over Jasper's eyes and Emmett's were over Bella's as they walked down the hallway with the rest of the family trailing behind. Everyone looked confused except for Alice who had a gleeful look on her face, and Edward who was frequently rolling his eyes.

"I'm trying," Bella groaned. Bella picked up her pace a little and in a few moment they were all standing in front of the closed door that behind it was a spare room. The once brown door was now painted a light green.

"Edward! Open the door for me," Alice ordered.

"This is ridiculous," Edward muttered as he opened the door. They all walked inside and both Jasper and Bella were allowed to see again. They both gasped at what they saw. The room had been painted the same light green as the door and had been transformed into a small classroom.

The walls had various posters on them that you would find in the average classroom that said things such as 'We Had Homework?' with a child with a shocked expression on there face. There was a large window with an alcove and a long light green cushion and set of small pillows where a person could easily sit comfortably. The wall directly in front of them was covered completely, half by a blackboard and the other half by a white board. There were two desks in the room.

Both desks were facing each other, one desk was large and wooden with several drawers and various papers, a computer, and a pencil holder were on it. This desk was clearly for Jasper. The other desk was almost exactly the same except it was slightly smaller, didn't have a computer on it, and it had several textbooks on it.

"Well this is-" Bella cut Jasper off,

"Crazy?" Alice glowered at her. Jasper glanced at Bella and replied with his southern drawl,

"I was gonna say 'nice.'" Edward interrupted the exchange,

"I think crazy is the perfect word." Emmett guffawed and there were several others laughing lightly.

Eventually everyone dispersed, leaving Jasper and Bella alone. They both sat down at there desks. Jasper asked,

"How does it feel starting the fourth grade?" Bella murmured shyly,

"Weird."

"Me being your teacher?"

"Even weirder." Jasper chuckled before joking,

"Don't worry. I don't bite. Well, at least not humans." Bella smiled and that joke definitely broke the ice. After that they started working. Jasper had Bella taking review tests to see what she already knew. She'd finished the math and language tests when Esme knocked on the door around noon. She peeked her head in.

"I don't mean to interrupt but, Bella, your lunch is ready." Jasper stood and said,

"We probably should take a break. Go eat lunch and so whatever. Come back in an hour, though." Bella stood and stretched before heading to the door and consenting,

"'Kay Jazz." Bella sat down at the long counter in the kitchen and Esme gave her a turkey sandwich with French fries and a water bottle for lunch. Esme sat the plate in front of her and said happily,

"Here you go Bella." Bella smiled and said appreciatively,

"Thanks Esme but you know you really should let me make my own meals sometimes." Esme waved her off.

"Oh, don't be silly. I enjoy cooking. Now, eat up." Bella sighed and began eating. She was finished eating within twenty minutes so she took her water bottle into the living room and watched TV until it was time to back to the classroom. At around three forty-five they Jasper and Bella were finally finished. Jasper handed Bella all her tests back, graded.

"You did fairly well Bella. You got almost perfect scores on all the tests except for in math. You scored a 72 percent." Bella sighed.

"I suck at math." Jasper's lips quirked up a little.

"It's not that bad. It could be worse. Besides, I'm sure in a couple weeks l'll have you scoring 100 percent in math." Bella smiled.

"Confident?" Jasper smiled and leaned back in his chair. "Pshh. Dream on Jasper."

"We'll see." They both laughed and Bella couldn't help but think having him as a teacher might not be so bad.


	18. Chapter 15

**A/N: Sorry if this chapter is a little farfetched but I think it's pretty good. Review! Oh and sorry it's late, I know I usually post every weekend but I was really busy. Sorry for any mistakes. **

The weeks passed and everything in Sunshine was going good. Jasper had succeeded in helping Bella with her math and Alice was overjoyed that Jasper and Bella were actually using her makeshift classroom. Before long it was time for Bella to head to Union to spend Thanksgiving with Dana. Bella was so excited that she spent a whole week packing and unpacking her suitcase and then packing it again. When it was finally time, Emmett drove her. When they were almost to Union Emmett asked,

"You excited girly?"

"A little," Bella replied.

"Well just remember that if anything happens, anything at all, or you just want to come home early, you call home. Okay?" Bella rolled her eyes before responding,

"Yeah, yeah. I doubt that'll happen though."

"Well if it does-" Bella cut him off,

"Call you. Yeah I know." Emmett chuckled and said,

"Well good."

Once they arrived in Union they said there goodbyes and Emmett watched as Bella walked up to the door of Dana's small and blue two floor home that was tucked in between too other houses that looked eerily similar. Dana came to the door and when she saw Bella she practically attacked her with a hug,

"Oh, Bella I missed you so much! I'm so glad your here." Bella smiled slightly as she squeezed out of the choking hug and replied,

"It's good to be back."

"Awesome! Come on, let's go upstairs." They were running up the stairs when Bella tripped and fell down the stairs. She gasped,

"Ow." Dana freaked out,

"Oh my gosh! Bella! Are you okay?"

"Um, I think so. Ow, my leg! Oh-is my arm supposed to bend that way?!" Dana's eyes widened at Bella's twisted arm. Dana yelled,

"Mom! Dad!" After her parents came and realized what was happening they took Bella to the hospital. Dana's dad called Rosalie on the way to the hospital. Rosalie called Emmett and he headed back to Union and all the other Cullens jumped in a car and headed to Union. Bella thought that that was unnecessary but they had insisted. Emmett arrived at the hospital at the same time that they did.

"Are you okay Bella?" Emmett asked as he carried her into the hospital. She replied,

"Yeah, no worries. No bloodshed..." Her voice trailed off. Emmett rolled his eyes and said sternly,

"Blood is the last thing on my mind."

A nice nurse put Bella in a room and then all the tests began. After awhile she lost count of all the X-rays. Before Bella knew it, it was night time. Emmett brought her a large salad from the hospital cafeteria around 8 o'clock. She ate quickly and then fell asleep.

When Bella woke up the next morning her head felt kind of fuzzy but she wasn't in any pain. Her left leg and right arm were now hanging on some kind of support thing hanging from the ceiling. She looked around the room and saw that her whole family and Dana and her parents were crammed into the room along with the tall male doctor she had met earlier. The doctor say her awake and began talking quite quickly,

"Oh, good you're awake. You know, for someone that only fell down a few stairs you sure did injure yourself. I've never seen anything like it. You have a broken wrist, a broken ankle, a mild concussion, and two broken fingers. This is unbelievable. How are you feeling?" Bella tried to think about the question but her head still felt foggy.

"I-I'm not sure. My head feels kind of..." She trailed off, losing concentration.

"Hmm, yes well you've had quite a bit of pain medication."

"Mmm."

"Now, it shouldn't be long until I can release you. We just need to get you casted up." His version of not long turned out to be hours. While the casts were being put on Bella she enjoyed some time with Dana. The doctor brought some of the games from the children's wing playroom and Dana and Bella played a few games of checkers (Bella won twice and Dana once), they watched cartoons, ate breakfast and lunch together, and they colored a few pictures.

It was around 6 o'clock in the evening when all of Bella's cast were on, all the casts were purple. Dana said her goodbyes and left with her parents. Rosalie asked Bella,

"Are you ready to go home, Bella?" Bella sighed in relief and sat up in the hospital bed,

"Definitely Mom." Rosalie chuckled and handed Bella her crutches saying,

"Careful with those. We don't want you falling over again." Bella rolled her eyes and replied-referring to the last time she broke a leg from a bike accident-crankily,

"I know how to use crutches." Rosalie responded as Bella stood up,

"Of course you do. In just saying to be careful because not only do you have a broken finger on both hands but a broken arm which could make it more difficult to use the crutches properly." Bella just sighed.

"You really had us scared there for awhile Bella. Dana's father called and said you were heading to the hospital and then I get a vision of you laying in a hospital," Alice said, sounding quite exhausted.

They all eventually headed back towards Sunshine. Bella ride in the backseat of Emmett's car with Emmett driving and Rosalie in the passenger seat. They drove for a few hours but eventually stopped and bought Bella a sandwich, a drink, and a candy bar. Bella ate her food in the car and shortly after that she fell asleep and when she woke up she was in her bed at home.

Over the next few days Bella wished more and more that she hasn't fallen down the stairs. She had never really considered her parents overprotective before but she now realized that they were insanely overprotective. They brought all of her meals to her room and practically made her stay in her room all day in bed. If she wasn't in bed, she wasn't far from it. Rosalie was worried that if Bella moved around too much she might fall and hurt herself further and Emmett pretty much went along with that. It had only been a few days and Bella was already sick of it.


	19. Chapter 16

_**Christmas Day**_

Bella's first Christmas in Sunshine started wonderfully. She awoke in her bed to the smell of gingerbread. She smiled and sat up, rubbing her eyes. She grabbed her crutches and walked over to her closet, quickly putting on the Christmas shirt she had, which was red with a green Christmas tree on the front, and a pair of comfy pants. She smiled as she walked down the hallway to the kitchen. The entire house had been decorated entirely in Christmas decoration; plastic snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, mini-Christmas trees everywhere, little singing Santa Clauses, etc. The kitchen was no different.

Bella's eyes lit up when she saw the plates of gingerbread cookies sitting on the counter by Esme and Alice. The room smelled heavenly and it wasn't just from the the cookies. Sitting on the counter at the spot where Bella usually ate everyday was a stack of French toast topped with cinnamon and a coffee cup full of hot chocolate and whip cream. Her nose felt like it was in heaven. She moved towards the food as everyone else entered the kitchen. She sat down at the counter before greeting everyone pleasantly. She noticed that Emmett was dressed in a Christmas sweater and she couldn't help but laugh. Emmett narrowed his eyes at her before defending himself weakly,

"Your mother made me wear it." Rosalie said assuringly,

"Yes I did and you look very handsome." Emmett frowned, unconvinced. Bella giggled and Edward joked,

"Oh yes Emmett, you just look gorgeous." Bella laughed before agreeing sarcastically,

"Definitely. You're very pretty Dad." Emmett snapped,

"Just eat." Bella giggled once more before digging in to her food. Esme asked hopefully,

"Is the food alright?" Bella replied cheerfully,

"It's delicious, Esme."

When she finished eating Esme poured her a glass of milk that she carried with her as everyone went into the living room, Esme with the cookies in hand. The Christmas tree was at least twelve feet tall and smelled amazing. It was decorated in various ornaments, some that were bought and others the Cullen's, especially Bella, had made. Under and around the Christmas tree were large stacks of presents. Bella smiled as she saw the presents she had bought and wrapped. The Cullen's supplied Bella with a debit card and she rarely ever used it but she did this year to order gifts and wrapping paper online. They had come in the mail weeks ago and the Cullen's curiosity was unstoppable. Bella had went so far as to make Alice promise not to look into the future to find out what the gifts were. They gathered around and Alice cheered,

"Gift time!" Edward rolled his eyes but looked happy. They all picked up a gift with there name on it and began unwrapping the gifts. Bella gave Jasper a little hug when she opened his gift, a charm bracelet with a silver charm that looked a lot like Bella with her casts on. When Alice unwrapped her gift she froze. It was the gift that Bella had gotten for her. She breathed,

"Is this..." Her voice trailed off as she stood up, pulling the full length yellow gown out of its wrappings. Bella replied,

"An original Charles Frederick Worth. Took forever to find." Alice looked astonished.

"H-how? Shouldn't this be in a historical museum or something? I've spent a lifetime looking for a Charles Frederick Worth gown." Bella smiled.

"It was nearly impossible. I got lucky and fount someone in England with this dress and its been passed through generations of her family. She didn't really know of its value and it was just wasting away in her closet." Alice handed the dress carefully to Rose before wrapping Bella in a huge hug.

"This has to be the best gift I'll ever get Bella! Thank you so much! You are the best person on the planet!" Bella chuckled.

"You're welcome." Then Alice disappeared with the gown, no doubt to hide it somewhere she could secretly admire it everyday, for several moments before returning.

Shortly after, Emmett opened his gift from Bella, a football signed by Terry Bradshaw. Bella received a bear hug for that. Emmett's response was,

"God Bells, this is amazing! This has to be worth a small fortune."

"I got for a huge deal," Bella replied even though it wasn't necessary because money was something the Cullen's always had a ton of.

The rest of the gifts Bella gave were just as special as the first two. Carlisle received a Pacita Abad painting, Esme was gifted with a cookbook signed by her favorite chef, and so on and so forth.

Bella received several books, CDs, clothes, and etc. the special part though was that with every gift also was a charm for her bracelet. Each charm depicted some sort of event in her life; a little foot for the first time she walked, a jar with 'FORKS' written on it, a baby wrapped in a blanket like her the night she was put on the Cullen's doorstep, a charm of the first book she ever read herself, a little charm with her preschools name on it, and a church that looked just like the first church Carlisle ever took her too.

Edward put all the charms on the bracelet for her and put it on her right arm. Bella loved the bracelet and just knew that somehow it would always be special to her.

The rest of the day was amazing. After all the presents were opened, Emmett put Bella in a coat and took her outside and they played in the snow. There was a good foot of snow on the ground and they made snow angels and snow castles for half the day before Rosalie called them in, complaining that Bella would catch a cold.

After that, Bella drank more hot chocolate and had more cookies in the living room while the whole family talked and just enjoyed each others company. Around 4 o'clock Esme told Bella no more cookies because she need her appetite for dinner and she didn't want Bella getting a stomach ache.

Around 6 o'clock Bella was called into the dining room for dinner which she thought was odd because she almost always ate in the kitchen. Waiting for her was her entire family sitting around the large antique table and what was basically a feast for one. Bella was seated and served a ton of food; turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, biscuits, corn biscuits, broccoli cheese soup, potato soup, brussels sprouts with bacon, and cheese biscuits. Bella smiled. She knew she could never eat all of this delicious food but she was used to the Cullen's serving ginormous servings of food, just in case.

She sat down and began to eat a little bit of everything, including the three different drinks she'd been served which were soda, sweet tea, and Sprite. All the Cullen's engaged in various conversations during this as if it were a completely normal occurrence. Eventually, Bella had sampled everything and then Esme and Edward brought out the desserts. Apple pie, holiday fruitcake, eggnog cheesecake, brownies, brownies with peanuts, chocolate/peanut butter fudge, and blueberry pie were all brought out. Once again, she simply sampled a little of everything.

By the time all the plates were cleared it was time for her to get ready for bed. She took a shower, changed into her Christmas pajamas, and laid down in bed. Both Emmett and Rosalie soon came and kissed her goodnight. She laid inbred for several minutes, simply smiling because it had been the best Christmas's of her life so far.


	20. Chapter 17 and 18

**_16 Years Old_**

This is a huge year in Bella's life. It is not only the year she is moving from Sunshine but also is supposed to be the last time she sees Dana. Over the past few years Bella and Dana's friendship had remained strong which would only make it harder to say goodbye but she knew it was necessary because it just couldn't be hidden any longer; her family looked just the same as they had fifteen years ago.

Bella never wanted to say goodbye to Dana but, what could she do? Her family had already sacrificed so much for hers and Dana's friendship. The longer Dana was in their lives the bigger chance there what that they would be exposed for who they really are. Vampires. Bella knew that if Dana fount out the secret it could endanger her more than she knew.

Also, Bella had every intention of becoming a vampire which only made Dana's presence worse. Bella had never really fit in very well with other humans in her life and, as odd as it is, she fits in quite well with vampires. She just knew that her future was being a vampire. It didn't quite make since but her life never had. The Cullen's were her family and she knew she was supposed to be like them.

Then there was also the slight problem that Bella had recently really hit puberty and almost every time she was in the same room with Edward her heart seemed to flutter uncontrollably. She was now sixteen and he looked seventeen so it was only a year age difference but she realized how complicated it was, not to mention the fact that she hadn't even talked to Edward about this erratic attraction. So, in this area of her life, she felt stuck in place. She didn't think she was able to tell him how she felt and she didn't know if he could ever feel the same way, she was almost positive that he didn't feel the same way now.

One night many of these things were brought out in the open. All the Cullen vampires were out hunting except for Edward, who had stayed home because he'd been hunting the week before. When Bella walked into the living room he was sitting on the couch reading something. When he saw her he sat the book down.

"Hey Bella." She smiled awkwardly and stuttered,

"H-hi. Um, where's everyone?" His brows furrowed a little.

"There out hunting and they'll be back in a few hours. Are you alright? You're a little flushed." This comment only made her more flushed.

"Oh, uh, I'm fine. You know, I should, um, uh-" she realized she wasn't making sense and she turned to leave the room. She was almost out when Edward said,

"No, don't go. Come on, sit down." She turned around and he gestured to the spot on the couch that was right beside him. She slowly walked over and sat down. Her hurt was pounding hard and she knew he could hear it. She took a few breaths to calm herself before asking,

"What's up?" He replied,

"I was about to ask you the same thing. You've seemed very flustered lately." She looked up at him for the first time that night and got lost.

I was mesmerized the moment I looked at his face; the hard line of his jaw, his softer full lips, his perfect pale white skin, the sharpness of his cheekbones, a tangle of bronze hair. He was perfect.

When I gazed into his warm liquid gold eyes framed with thick black lashes I momentarily forgot where we were, what we were talking about and, just for a moment, my own name. When I recovered his features portrayed his worry and I rushed to reassure him,

"I'm fine, Edward, really." He didn't look convinced.

"Something's going on with you Bella. Tell me, please." I knew that he was referring to my flustered attitude but what was I supposed to say? I couldn't just tell him that every time I look him in the eyes I forget who I am and that I think I love him. Wait...do I think I love him? I can't be sure. So instead I say,

"I guess I'm just worried about moving again, and going to a high school with you guys, and saying goodbye to Dana." Edward put his arm around me comfortingly and my heart almost burst.

"In regards to moving, you'll be fine. We're going back to Forks to the same house. Granted, last time we were there we all stayed out of sight and didn't attend school so we would be able to return soon but we have attended school there in the past and I know you'll enjoy yourself. Besides, you don't have to worry about that till July which is four months away.

"About this whole Dana thing, I'm not sure what to say. I wish there was another way but there's just not. You're a part of this family and we're a family of vampires. I wish it was different, Bella. I really do."

While I was glad that the subject was no longer awkward I was also upset because what I had said was true as well. My worry over moving and Dana were very real and very troubling. I sighed and responded,

"I know and I'll be fine Edward. It's just all overwhelming." He nodded but his eyes were dark with upset so I continued, "Besides, this is what I want, even if it comes at a price. It'll all work out in the end." I hope. He seemed a reasonably okay when he said,

"I hope you're right Bella. Now, you should probably get some sleep. Are you hungry?" I shook my head and reluctantly stood.

"See you in the morning Edward."

"Goodnight." I walked to my bedroom and plopped down on my bed, examining the cork board on the ceiling that was covered in various pictures. I fell asleep staring at a picture of Edward and I at my last birthday party.

**_Chapter 18_**

Edward may have said that it was four months before they left but it seemed like much less. Everyday seemed to fly by and I just couldn't handle it. It didn't make it much easier that someone had discovered my secret.

Jasper and I had just finished class for the day when he asked me to go on a walk with him and Alice. I thought it was odd but I replied,

"Sure, I guess." Alice appeared in the room and cheered,

"Yay! Now, come on."

"Wait, wha-" I began but she had already scooped me into her arms. They gathered by the window and to say I freaked out would be an understatement.

"Alice! Jasper! What do you think your doing? We're on the last floor of the building!" They merely laughed and jumped out the window. I bit my lip to keep from screaming and shut my eyes tightly. I only knew when we landed because the wind stopped momentarily but quickly picked up again when they started running. I didn't know where they were going because I kept my eyes closed but when I felt them stop moving I opened my eyes and we were in some kind of forest, surrounded by trees.

Alice sat me down on my feet and I asked,

"What kind of walk was that? What do you guys want?" They were silent for a moment and Jasper began,

"Well a few days ago while Edward and I were in the living room you came in and I could feel all your emotions towards him." Alice shrieked enthusiastically,

"You love Edward!" My eyes widened with sudden comprehension and utter horror and embarrassment.

"I-I, you can't, I mean, I-I don't, this isn't, I..." I didn't know what else to say. I felt as though my heart had stopped beating which I'm pretty sure it did for a moment. Jasper sent waves of calm my way which were greatly appreciated. Alice sighed impatiently.

"Don't even try to deny it Bella!" I finally managed a full sentence,

"Why does it even matter if I love him?" She was right though. There was no denying that I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him. I had spent months trying to hide this and denying it to myself but it was the truth. No matter how much I may wish it was different, I love Edward Cullen with a love that may very well be stronger than any love there's ever been.

There was a long beat of silence.

"He loves you too!" Alice suddenly blurted. My eyes widened and I yelled,

"What?" Never, ever, in all of my wildest dreams would I have ever thought it was possible for Edward to reciprocate my feelings. Just because I love him doesn't mean he loves me. It's impossible that someone as perfect as Edward could ever love me. Alice responded,

"It's true! Jasper's felt it! It's been driving Jazz crazy for months. You two love each other and seem completely oblivious to each others feelings." I could t believe it. Was it possible? I couldn't think straight. Jasper murmured,

"Bella, breathe." I hadn't realized I wasn't breathing. I took a few deep breaths and the air filled my lungs soothingly. At the moment all I wanted was to be alone so I could think.

Could he love me? Could we love each other? How long had he loved me? Was it a strong love? Was it even a possibility? Had Jasper read his emotions wrong? My head was spinning.

"Look guys, even if this is true, which I don't think it is, keep it to yourself. Don't even think about it, especially not around Edward. I need to think so take me home."

"But-" Jasper tried to argue.

"Home," I demanded and reluctantly they complied.

When I was home I ran towards my room. Edward was walking in the hallway and I froze. He asked,

"Are you okay? You look as pale as a ghost. Almost as pale as me."

"I, well, I-I, I'm fine." I ran past him, into my bedroom, and shut the door. I paced around the room for hours thinking and at the end of my pacing I hadn't come up with anything so I laid down.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't sleep. One question stayed in my head all night: Did Edward love me?

I was very grateful for the glitch in my brain that made me immune to Edwards mind reading abilities.


	21. Chapter 19 and 20

**_Rosalie's Input_**

**_Rosalie's P.O.V_**

Dammit! He can't do this! Edward and Bella are like ticking time bombs. Any day now they'll be running towards each other to profess there love. Everyone knows it. Those too are so obvious about there love that I'm surprised they are both still oblivious.

It's not that I don't want my daughter to be happy because I do but not with him. If those two become mates I just know that there will be nothing I can do to stop her from becoming a vampire. She's already insistent and I can't stand it.

I love Bella and I can barely stand the mere thought of her dying one day but that's how it's supposed to be. She's supposed grow up, go to college, get a career, get married, have children, and then one day die. She's not supposed to fall in love with Edward and he is definitely not supposed to love her.

Those two have been walking around the apartment for weeks avoiding each other but I know they can't keep it up for long, especially since everyone else is really pushing for them to be together. Even Emmett wants them together! I'm the only one that thinks she should stay human and not be with Edward. There's not much I can do.

So, at the moment I am just trying to keep them avoiding each other for as long as possible. It was easier than I had expected. I kept a close eye on Bella and spent a lot of time with her which, in general, kept Edward away because I wasn't exactly his favorite family member. I also had to keep my thoughts completely off Bella and Edward's love when Edward was around so he would, hopefully, not find out.

Then all in one day, Dana, Bella's only human friend, flushed all my hopes down the drain...

**_Chapter 20_**

My life is so confusing. Mom won't leave me alone! I love her and everything but lately she's been hovering...constantly. While everyone else in the house has been pressing really hard for me to talk to Edward, she seems completely against it.

Meanwhile, Dana is coming to visit this weekend for the last time. Just thinking that brings me to tears. She's been my best friend for years but in two weeks we'll be moving to Forks and I won't be able to see her anymore. I'm seventeen now and my family is still the same.

She arrived on Friday at around 1 PM. When I opened the doors she dropped her blue suitcase and threw her arms around me and I did the same. It was really good to see her, even if it was for the last time.

"Hey Bella! It's so great to see you!" I replied honestly,

"It's really good to see you too. Come on, lets go to my room."

"Alright," she responded as she picked up her suitcase. When we got to the room I noticed she was dressed extremely girly.

She was dressed in a blue blouse with a red heart in the center, a light denim jacket, a denim skirt with black leggings, and a pair of black flats. I commented,

"Uh, somebody changed there style." She blushed red and responded shyly,

"Yeah, I thought it was time for a change."

"You look good," I reassured her. She smiled and sat down on my bed and I did the same. We spent a while just watching TV and hanging out. She told me all about how her and our old friend Jason were getting serious. I had known they had been dating but I had thought it wasn't anything serious. Now, the way she talked about him sounded really major.

She talked about him almost non stop and I was glad. It was good to know that she would have someone to talk to when she no longer had me. It gave me piece of mind to know that I wasn't leaving Dana alone.

We spent the entire weekend having fun and enjoying each others company. On Saturday night, the night before her departure we decided we wanted to go out. My family didn't want us to go out on our own though because the crime rate in Sunshine was rising rapidly and since the rest of the family was out 'eating', so Edward had to come with us.

We drove to one of the only decent restaurants in town, Dave's Steakhouse, I drove Dana's car and made Edward go in his so we could try to salvage a girls night. We were seated and were having a pretty normal average conversation, though Edward remained mostly silent. It was clear when he excused himself to go to the restroom that he was trying to act human. He was only coming back and only a few feet away when Dana asked,

"So I'm guessing you haven't told Edward that you love him yet?" I gasped and Edward froze. Oh, no. This couldn't be happening. I stopped breathing.

Dana looked from me to him and gasped in horror as she realized what shed done. She stood up and stuttered,

"Uh, I-I think I'll leave you two alone. I'm gonna drive back to the apartment."

No, don't go, I wanted to shout but my mouth wouldn't open and my throat was suddenly dry as a bone. She picked up her purse and dashed out. Edward seemed to recover and he sat down next to me. Oh, no. Oh, oh no. I don't think I can handle his rejection. He murmured,

"Breathe." I wasn't sure if I could. I slowly opened my mouth and took a slow deep breath which went into my lungs slightly painfully. I couldn't believe this was happening. I just couldn't believe it.

"Bella look at me," he whispered softly. I shook my head. I couldn't do it. "Look at me," he said with a little more force. He put a hand on my chin and gently lifted my head up so I was looking into his soft gold eyes. He smiled and asked softly,

"You love me?" I gulped and managed to nod. He gazed into my eyes and said the four words that made my life perfect,

"I love you too."


	22. Chapter 21 and 22

**Disclaimer: Some things from here on out will be direct quotes from the Twilight books and/or movies. I DO NOT own Twilight. **

"What?" I managed to ask him after several moments. My mind was reeling. Was this really happening? Could the amazing moment that I'd never allowed myself to dream for actually be happening? He smiled a little but I thought I could see something in his eyes. Worry?

"I love you, Bella," he said softly. I processed his words and then, slowly, a big goofy grin spread across my face. This was happening. He continued,

"I can't seems to shake the feeling—not that I haven't tried. You're not like anyone I've ever known throughout my entire existence. The more I try to avoid you, the more I find myself being drawn to you. I thought though, that I could stay away from you, because surely you couldn't want a...monster like me. Now I find out that you feel similar to the way I feel is...remarkable." This was so much to take in but one word seemed to stick out in my mind, a word that didn't belong. Monster. I took a few breaths and began speaking, a little unsteadily,

"Every time I see you, my heart takes off. I don't think you see yourself right. Your perfect." He didn't have time to reply because our waitress came carrying our food; my lasagna, his steak (which he ordered for show), and Dana's mushroom ravioli. She looked directly at Edward when she asked,

"Do you need anything else? Will the other young lady be joining you again?"

"No, thank you," he replied and flashed a gleaming smile that left her momentarily dazed. She soon recovered, nodded, and walked away.

"You shouldn't do that," I criticized. "It's not fair."

"Do what?"

"Dazzle people like that—she's probably hyperventilating."

He looked confused.

"Come on," I said dubiously. "You have to know the effect you have."

He tilted his head to one side and his eyes were wide with curiosity. "I dazzle people?"

"You haven't noticed? Do you think everybody gets their way so easily?"

He ignored my questions. "Do I dazzle _you_?"

"Frequently," I admitted. He smiled smugly.

"Really?" I blushed and nodded. "You dazzled me as well." I snorted in disbelief.

"You truly don't see yourself clearly, do you?" I didn't answer. We sat in silence for several minutes so I jumped a little when he said, "Eat." How could I eat? All this information had made me not hungry, but not in a bad way. I was extremely happy.

"I'm not really hungry. I can't eat," I replied.

"Try," he pleaded. I took a few bites just to placate him.

"Happy?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yes," he responded.

"Are we going to continue with the mono-syllables?"

He smiled wryly. "Clearly not." I sighed and pushed my plate away.

"I'm finished," I declared. He frowned.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I can't eat anymore." He deliberated for a moment, probably trying to decide whether or not to push the issue. In the end, he sighed and paid for the food. I tried to protest when he pulled my chair away from the table but he simply said,

"I'm a formal guy." As we walked to the car I teased,

"Yeah. I bet they were really formal back in the dark ages." He rolled his eyes.

"So I've heard."

When we got in his Volvo he had one hand on the wheel and one hand in his lap. I gulped and gently grazed his cool free hand with my fingers. His lips twitched and he took my hand. I smiled at how natural it felt, how right it felt. He sighed asked,

"Do you know how wrong this is?" I raised an eyebrow, confused.

"What is?"

"Us." He looked grave. I swallowed hard.

"Is there an us?" He glanced at me and said very seriously,

"I don't think I have the self-control to stop there from being an us."

"Then don't try," I whispered staring at me hands. His lips twitched up a little. He pulled into the parking lot of our apartment and in a flash he was outside my door, opening it for me. As I stepped out I muttered,

"So formal." He put his hand on my cheek and looked me in the eyes, making me forget where we were.

"Always," he murmured. I took a shaky breath and he smiled. He grabbed my hand and led me into our building.

When we arrived at our apartment we fount Dana asleep on the couch in the living room and I was grateful. I already owed her so much for her blurting out my deep dark secret. And how was I going to repay her? I was leaving. I shook my head. This was for the best. Edward appraised me as we walked to my bedroom and asked,

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I opened my bedroom door and walked in and, to my surprise, so did he. He closed the door, put my face in his hands, and murmured,

"Don't lie. What's wrong?" I admitted breathlessly,

"I feel wrong to be happy tonight. This is the last time I'll ever see my best friend and yet, this is the best night of my life."

"Best?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. He let go of my face and we both sat down on my bed.

"Best. I can't believe that you could ever love me." He smiled slightly.

"Why can't you believe it?"

"Well, look at at me," I said unnecessarily as he was already staring. "I'm absolutely ordinary—well, except for bad things like all the near-death experiences and being so clumsy that I'm almost disabled. And look at you." I waved my hand toward him and all his bewildering perfection.

His face was suddenly very close to mine and very serious. "How can you not see how perfect you are? How wonderfully amazing you truly are?" My breathing got thicker as he got closer to me. He pressed his forehead against mine and whispered,

"Be still." I struggled to obey and fount myself leaning a little. He said, "Stay still." Somehow I managed this as his lips got closer and closer to mine, his eyes locked on my eyes.

Then, very suddenly he kissed me. A kiss so amazing, so wondrous and perfect that I forgot everything. Absolutely everything...

Chapter 22

When he pulled away I wanted to grab him and kiss endlessly. I took a ragged breath and looked at him.

"You dazzled me again," I accused and he had a slight triumphant smile on his face.

"Would you like a round of applause, Edward?" He shook his head, smiling but then grew serious again as he stroked my cheek.

"It was easier to resist your scent then I thought it would be. I know that when I leave you here now that it will be harder in the morning. The more I'm around you the easier it is to resist."

"Then stay." He pursed his lips and said,

"Rose would kill me."

"You can take her." He chuckled and laid down on the bed, relaxed.

"I think I'll stay right here." I was suddenly very excited. I asked reluctantly,

"Can I have a few minutes to just be human?" He smiled and nodded. As I stood up I turned and tried to sound fierce as I ordered, "Stay here." He smiled wryly.

"Yes ma'am." He froze up for dramatic effect. I grabbed a pair of pajamas before dashing into the restroom.

I used the restroom and then put on the pajamas. I quickly reapplied my deodorant and tried to brush through my mess of brown hair. Next, I tried to brush my teeth quickly while still being thorough. Then, I examined myself in the mirror and fount that I was flushed but my eyes were wide and excited. Finally, I excited the bathroom.

I was very glad to see that Edward was right where I left him, frozen. I rolled my eyes at that and crawled into bed next to him. He pulled my head up to his chest and kissed my hair.

"Hello," he murmured.

"Hi," I replied lamely.

"You look tired. You should sleep." I didn't want to sleep. I wanted to just enjoy the moment.

"No I'm not tired," I lied. I could almost feel him roll his eyes.

"Yes you are. Sleep. I'll be here when you wake up."

"Promise?" He chuckled but responded,

"Promise." I nodded in defeat and he began humming something. It was a soft tune that sounded like a lullaby. Within minutes I was asleep with my head resting peacefully on his chest.


	23. Chapter 23

When I awoke the next morning I kept my eyes closed for a minute, not wanting to wake up. It seemed almost impossible that the events of last night had actually happened. I wanted to believe it, I desperately wanted to, but a large part of my brain was screaming that it couldn't have happened. Was it possible? Was Edward here? When I opened my eyes, at first I didn't see him.

"Your hair looks like a haystack...but I like it," his unruffled voice came from the rocking chair in the corner.

"Edward! You stayed!" I rejoiced and thoughtlessly threw myself across the room and into his lap. I froze for a moment in horror at my thoughtless action.

But he laughed.

"Of course," he stated, startled, but seemingly pleased by my reaction. He rubbed my back.

I laid my head on his shoulder cautiously, breathing in the smell of his skin.

"I was sure I'd imagined it all," I whispered.

He scoffed, "You're not that imaginative." I rolled my eyes but smiled. It was real. It was all real.

"Mom!" I suddenly jumped up as I remembered Mom and how angry she probably is because I know they have all probably been home for hours.

"She's outraged, to say the least. She tried to break down the door several times last night but Emmett stopped her. The whole family, including Dana, has been trying to calm her all night."

"Dana? Is she still here?" My throat suddenly became very tight. He shook his head.

"No but she told Alice to tell you goodbye." I blinked away the tears that threatened to expose my sadness though I was sure he could already tell. I had planned on being able to say goodbye to her but I couldn't regret the actions that made that impossible.

"Are you alright?" Edward asked as he stood and stroked my cheek. I stared into his warm eyes that were now filled with concern and then wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and continued rubbing my back, soothingly. For a moment we just stood there, until I mumbled,

"I need another human minute." He pulled away, making my heart skip a beat.

"Take all the time you need. I'll be here."

I grabbed a plain white t-shirt and some jeans before going to the restroom. As quickly as I could, I took a shower. I tried to be as fast as possible but it took awhile to shave my legs. After the shower I tossed on the clothes, brushed my hair, and brushed my teeth. As I stared in the mirror I allowed a few tears to stream down my face.

No matter how much I knew it was the right thing to do, it didn't change the fact that Dana was my best friend. We had spent so much time together and we grew up together and now, in one day, I had to give it up and I didn't even get to say goodbye. I was sure that if Dana had realized we were never going to see each other again she would have stayed longer but she was completely oblivious. More tears streamed down my face. This had to stop.

_It's for the best,_ I reminded myself. I sniffled a little before wiping my eyes and focusing on something else. Edward.

I sprinted out of the restroom to find Edward perched against the bedroom door looking more like a Greek god then any person had the right too.

He walked over to me and examined a strand of my wet mop of hair. I grimaced and he murmured reassuringly,

"You look beautiful."

I blushed. "Thanks." I glanced at the door and gulped. He raised an eyebrow and asked,

"Are you ready to face Rosalie?"

How was I supposed to answer that? The thought of facing Mom when she's angry is terrifying but that wasn't the worst part. It really upset me to know that I wouldn't be able to get support from my own mother. I wasn't sure what was more painful at the moment: my mothers rejection of my feelings for Edward or having to let go of Dana.

"Lets get this over with," I muttered and he chuckled, overconfidently. We walked out of my bedroom and down the hall to the living room to face our entire family, including a really upset looking Mom.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: I'm sorry it's so short! It's short but it's important. The next chapter will be longer, I swear! So, do you like it so far? ****_Review_****! ****_Review_****! ****_REVIEW_****! Haha, anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Did I mention that you should review? Oh, I did? Well okay then.**

"_How dare you," _Mom hissed at Edward the second we were in the living room. Even though the anger wasn't directed at me it still made me flinch.

"Rose-" Edward began calmly but was quickly cut off by Mom shouting,

"Shut up! How could you? She's my _daughter_!" In the moment I felt a large bubble of anger surged through me. I shouted,

"Mom, what is your problem?" Every one looked a little shocked at my sudden outburst. I had never been one to every yell or raise my voice at someone but what was I supposed to do? I wasn't going to let her just yell at Edward.

She wasn't yelling when she said, "Bella, he's a vampire."

"Why, thank you, Captain Obvious! So what?" Mom gasped in horror and Edward looked down at me, eyes wide with shock.

"You don't care that he's a vampire?" She asked.

I gave her a confused look. "Of course not. In case you haven't noticed, I live in a house full of vampires."

"You can't love a vampire, Bella! You just can't!" In the mix with all the shouting, she sounded pleading. I murmured,

"It's a little late for that." Comprehension seemed to cross her face and before saying anything else she was gone.

"Dammit," Dad muttered before running after her. Everyone in the room remained quiet for what felt like an hour before everyone slowly filed out of the room, leaving Edward and I alone. I tried to read his face but it was smooth and hard and revealing no emotion. After a long, agonizing moment he asked impassively,

"Would you like to go for a drive?"

"Uh, sure." It came out like a question.

He drove to a small park that, on this cloudy day, was empty. At the moment I had three problems: Edward was still completely deadpan, my emotions were all over the place due to Dana's departure, and I was hungry. I hadn't ate since last night and even then, I hadn't ate much.

When we were out of the car he walked over and sat down on a park bench so I did the same and sat next to him. We were silent for awhile and the longer he was silent, the more worried I got. Had he changed his mind? Overnight he probably had a lot of time to think and he could have easily decided that he didn't want be with a human like me. Had he? Finally he spoke in a soft tone,

"Bella, how can you say you don't care that I'm a vampire? A monster?" Monster? That's what he had called himself yesterday at dinner. Did he really think he was a monster?

"Edward, you're not a monster. You may be a vampire but you are no monster."

"I've killed people, Bella."

I swallowed hard. "That doesn't matter." Now an emotion crossed his face. A flicker of anger.

"_It doesn't matter?" _The tone of his voice made me flinch but I continued,

"No. It doesn't matter. The past is the past and you don't kill humans anymore. Remember, I'd know. Your eyes would be red."

"Bella, I don't think you understand. Just because I try to be good and not hunt humans but...there's always the possibility that I might slip up and with your blood being as intoxicating as it is, that possibility is more and more likely."

"I'll take my chances."


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: Woo! My 25th Chapter! Yay!**

Mom is ignoring me. Every time I pass her in the hallway she doesn't acknowledge me and when I walk into a room she's in she leaves. I understand that she's upset but is that really necessary? She may be upset, but I'm not. I love Edward and she needs to find a way to understand that I have no plans of ever not wanting to be with him. She's just going to have to deal with it.

Edward and I have been spending almost every second of every day together and it's absolutely amazing. He makes my heart beat faster than it ever has—which is embarrassing since I know he can hear it. He asks me lots of questions, like he wants to know everything he can about me and I do the same. It's surprising that I've lived in the same house as him for years and I really don't know that much about him. I knew he was a wonderful piano player but I didn't know that he loved listening to music performed with a piano.

I also didn't know that he died of Spanish Influenza. I feel like I'm having an out of body experience when he tells me about his death even though he's right next to me and seem completely alive. That's not the most fascinating thing though. To me, for some odd reason, I find the fact that he once had green eyes the most fascinating thing of all.

I try very hard to imagine Edward as a human. With pink cheeks and gorgeous green eyes that any girl could fall in love with. I find myself completely envious of Carlisle because he's seen Edward as a human. He got to see first hand the dashing human that I know Edward was.

And then there's Alice. Who, despite my complete protest, is taking me shopping tomorrow. She has deluded herself into believing that just because I live Edward that I want to change my style to look more 'outgoing and flirtatious'. Yeah, right. I've agreed to go though because it will give Edward the chance to hunt. His eyes have been getting extremely dark lately and I don't want to push it, even though he seems extremely willing to postpone the hunting trip.

A few minutes ago I asked Edward while we were sitting in the living room why he hasn't played his piano lately.

"Would you like me to?" He asked, seemingly surprised by the question.

I nodded. "I like hearing you play the piano." He smiled my favorite crooked smile before standing up and taking my hand in his cool palm. He led me to the room where he keeps his piano. The room is white and very open and echoey. He sat down at the piano bench and gestured for me to do the same. His fingers gently grazed the piano keys and he began playing a song that would put Beethoven and Bach themselves to shame. Suddenly I frowned.

"What?" He asked warily, as he stopped playing.

I shook my head. "I'm feeling extremely insignificant at the moment."

His hands fount the keys again. The melody started off and got softer and softer, becoming incredibly sweet and somehow I detected the melody of the lullaby he has hummed to me the first night he stayed with me.

"You inspired this one," he murmured. The melody become unbearably sweet.

I couldn't speak. He fingers slowly came to a stop and be moved to face me and I slowly fount my voice.

"Beautiful," I said in awe.

He smiled slightly. "Then it perfectly describes you." I blushed.

As much as I would have been perfectly happy to have that moment last forever, Alice walked in.

"Hey, guys."

"What do you want Alice?" Edward asked and he seemed quite annoyed which pleased me.

"I wanted to let you know that it's going to be raining next Saturday and that's when we'll be moving." Oh right. Our inevitable move to Forks.

"Okay Alice. Thanks," Edward replied and she headed for the door. She nodded, looked back and for at Edward and I and winked at me before leaving. I knew my face had to be as red as a cherry.

The rest of the day went by much too fast. We relaxed around the house and at dinner time Edward made me a burger and some French fries. We watched Romeo and Juliet but it was very hard to concentrate on the movie with Edward whispering all the lines in my ear with his perfect angelic voice. Dad coerced us into playing a video game with him and to my satisfaction Edward won by a landslide.

Then we played chess with Jasper and Alice. Jasper creamed me. Watching Alice and Edward play chess was fascinating. They played almost the entire game in there minds and they had barely moved two pawns when Alice sighed and flicked over her king.

Then Esme sat down with us and tried to get our on different samples of paints and carpets. Apparently, when we get to Forks she wants to redo her bedroom. I tried to help but it's clearly not my area of expertise so Edward gave his opinion. I'm beginning to wonder if there is anything Edward isn't an expert at.

At around ten thirty at night we finished watching the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights and Edward convinced me to get some sleep.

As we laid in my bed I couldn't sleep. I was tired but I didn't want to sleep. Today had been a great day and I feel like I'm going to go to sleep and then wake up and have none of this been real.

"Sleep, love. Your tired," he murmured. I snuggled into his chest and shook my head. He kissed my forehead and murmured against my skin, "I'll be here when you wake up." He began humming my lullaby and I knew it was only a matter of time before I were to succumb to sleep.

As I drifted off to sleep I prayed that life would always be this wonderful and that Edward would always be here.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: This chapter is a special Christmas Flashback and regular chapters will start again after my Christmas Break is over!**

Bella's 13th Christmas

Christmas at the Cullen's house was always an exciting event and this year was no different. The house was decorated with tons of tinsel and every Christmas decoration imaginable. Under the tree was a medley of large no doubt expensive gifts for everyone to open and the house was full of cheery vampires and a newly teenage Bella.

The days leading up to Christmas consisted of almost everyone trying to bribe Alice to look into the future and tell them what they were getting for Christmas. Everything was as it usually is during the month of December. Well that is until Alice suddenly transformed from her usual happy self into a gloomy and grumpy person stomping around the house all day.

It was getting pretty bad that at one point Jasper was following her around asking what was bothering her, looking pretty desperate. She wouldn't tell anyone what was bothering her and if you asked her she would snap some sort of insult at you. Everyone was getting worried, especially Jasper, and Christmas was getting closer and closer.

One day while Bella was in the kitchen she saw something weird in the trashcan. It was ripped out picture from a magazine of the sweater that Jasper was planning on giving Alice for Christmas. Someone had drawn a big X over the sweater and stabbed the picture multiple times with what appeared to be a pen or pencil.

"Oh wow," Bella muttered. She quickly threw some paper towels in the trash to thoroughly cover up the picture before walking into the living room to find everyone gathered in the room looking worriedly at Alice who was looking pleadingly at Bella which surprised everyone because it was the first time she had showed any emotion other than gloominess in a week.

It took Bella a minute to figure out what Alice wanted. Once she did, she slumped down into a chair and glared at Alice.

"Absolutely not. No way, Alice," She declared.

"Oh please, Bella! I don't have the heart," Alice pleaded. Bella rolled her eyes and threw back her head.

"No. It's not my responsibility to tell Jasper-" she covered up her mouth before she could accidentally reveal anything else.

"Tell me what?" Jasper asked.

"Nothing," they both said in unison and his eyes narrowed. Alice continued her pleading stare until Bella reluctantly conceded,

"Fine. Ugh."

"Thank you Bella! You're the best," she cheered as she bounced out of the room leaving everyone staring at Bella including Jasper, who's stare was rather intense, and Edward, who was snickering from already reading Alice's mind.

"I don't suppose you'd like to tell him for me?" Bella asked Edward and he shook his head smiling.

"Tell me what?" Jasper repeated. Bella glared at everyone else and they all filed out of the room except for Emmett who cocked an eyebrow in anticipation.

"Dad, go away."

"No, I wanna hear this."

"Dad if you don't leave I'm gonna tell Mom what you got her for Christmas." Emmett's eyes widened.

"You wouldn't."

"I will. Oh Mo-" she called before being cut off by Emmett.

"Fine, fine. Gees," he muttered as he left. Jasper looked at Bella expectantly and she suddenly changed her plan.

"Hey Jazz, wanna go for a car ride?"

"Um-"

"Come on, it'll be fun," Bella said not so excitedly. She stood up and put on her coat.

"Uh, okay, I guess," Jasper said standing up. Once they were in the car he asked, "Where am I going?"

"The mall," she replied.

"Why?"

"You'll see," Bella said, trying to sound elusive. At the mall, Bella walked Jasper to Alice's favorite jewelry store.

"You know, I bet Alice would _love_ something from in there."

Jasper's brow furrowed. "I already got her that sweater though."

Bella cleared her throat. "Yeah, about that...Alice hates that sweater."

"What?" he demanded.

"Sorry, Jazz." There was silence for a long moment before he asked,

"She really doesn't like it?" Bella nodded and he sighed.

"Why didn't she just say so?" Bella shrugged. "Well, I'll just buy her something else." That's just what he did. he picked out a very pretty gold necklace and had it wrapped at the mall.

They came home with the gift to find a much happier Alice who was clearly pleased when Jasper tossed the package that the sweater was wrapped in into the trash. Bella rolled her eyes but was reasonably pleased. A Christmas disaster had been avoided and the Cullens had yet another cheerful and wonderful Christmas.


	27. Chapter 27

The fight with Mom was inevitable. As the days between here and Forks grew shorter, the tension between us grew thicker. Apparently, my family was under the impression that if they left us alone we would talk it out. So, the night before we left for Forks, everyone went hunting except for Mom who had gone yesterday, not knowing they were all planning on going tonight.

I had tried to convince Edward to stay but his response had been,

"Bella love, I don't want to be a reason of discord between Rosalie and you. Please, just try to talk to your mother."

So there we are. We're both sitting silently across from each other in the living room. I flipped through a magazine and she did the same. The tension in the room kept building and building until I found myself standing.

"What is you problem?" I yelled at her. She stood up and looked shocked.

"My problem? I'm not the one risking her life to date the opposite species!"

"What do you mean 'risking my life'? I don't know if you've noticed but my entire family is the opposite species!"

"Yes but being a part of our family hasn't made you want to be a vampire! But I know that dating Edward is making you want to be a vampire."

I snorted because that was absolutely ridiculous. "Mom, you can't blame Edward for that because that's not how it it! I have always wanted to be a vampire. Loving Edward has almost nothing to do with it." She took several deep breaths before continuing in a calmer and almost desperate tone,

"Why, Bella? Why would you want to be like this? Never changing, never growing." I explained,

"I don't expect you to understand but I know that I'm meant to be a vampire. My entire life I have barely managed to survive around humans but around vampires, I feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be, like I'm stronger. I'm sorry but, somehow, I will become a vampire and you're just going to have to deal with it." It felt good to get that off my chest but I was anxious as I waited for her to respond.

Finally, she sighed. "I suppose I really did see this coming. I just need time to adjust to the idea, Bella. But I suppose there's no reason for this not speaking thing to continue." With me fighting back tears, we hugged and just like that, I had my mom back.

Within minutes we were talking like we used to and, somehow we got to the topic of kissing.

"Is he really that good?" Mom asked, referring to Edward's kissing.

I chuckled wryly. "You have no idea. He's...woah." She raised and eyebrow and laughed.

"You've got it bad for him." We both laughed at how true that was and then were silent for a moment. Suddenly she asked, "How are you dealing with not being able to see Dana? I know we never really talked about it."

I sighed. "I'm alright, I guess. I miss her but I guess it's sort of...opportunity cost."

"How so?" Mom looked skeptical.

"Well, she was a good friend but I had to give her up to get what ultimately need and want."

"Which is?"

I leaned back against the couch. "I think you know."

She sighed. "To become a vampire."

"Kind of." Now she looked truly curious.

"What do you mean?"

I tried to find the right words to describe it.

"It's not so much being a vampire its being able to be what I'm supposed to be—meant to be."

"You honestly believe that you're meant to be a vampire," she asked skeptically.

"Maybe. What I do know is that I'm meant to spend eternity with my family—and Edward of course."

She rolled her eyes but otherwise didn't comment. We spent the rest of the night reminiscing my life, including some vaguer memories of Forks.

I could remember spending a lot of time with Dad and I could even remember a few failed encounters with a bicycle. The most prominent memory though was that of Jasper and I putting dirt in a jar. I still had that jar and a jar from our previous home that were currently packed up and awaiting departure. All this reminded me that I didn't yet have a jar for here but what do you put in a jar when you live in a city? After Mom assured me that Esme would not in fact kill me, we emptied her windowsill flower pot that contained daisies into a jar and labeled it SUNSHINE.

After that we simply relaxed for a while and watched a little TV. It was the first time in what seemed like an eternity that I was in the same room with her without feeling upset. It was nice to have my Mom back.

**A/N: I'm sorry it's late, I've been crazy busy with midterms! I know it's short but don't shoot me!**


	28. Chapter 28

The move to Forks had been fairly smooth. The last thing that was packed up was the little room that I'd gone to school in since I was little. Jasper and I packed up the room together. Others had offered to help but I wouldn't let them. Jasper and reminisced about all the long hours we'd spent in that room. It was funny how just a few months ago I hadn't really liked school with Jasper and now I already missed it.

Edward and I drove to Forks together in his Volvo and he spent most of the time telling me about Forks. I remembered very little of the town other than its small size. I remembered our large spacious house and I had one other memory of playing at a park with another child. I could barely remember making mud pies with the tan little boy who I thinks name was Jake.

Other than that the only other thing I really knew of Forks was that there were werewolves there. I'm not completely sure when my family told me about werewolves but I must have been fairly young and as far as we know, there's a whole pack of them in Forks.

Once we got to Forks and I saw just how small of a town it was, I couldn't help but be just a little depressed. When we arrived at our homes driveway we were almost out of Forks. The driveway of our home seemed to go on forever in the woodsy forest but finally we reached the large White House with huge windows. When we pulled in to the garage and discovered we were the last ones there Edward frowned and I knew he was thinking about all the times I'd asked him to slow down on the way here.

The beauty of having a vampire family is that things that were normally tedious took no time at all. Unpacking? Humans=Days Vampires=Minutes. So within minutes they had the whole house unpacked and arranged. Esme, Alice, and Mom had bought new furniture for almost all of the house and the living room had white carpet with two white couches, a huge TV, and various small glass tables including a glass coffee table with a vase of yellow lilies on them.

Edward and I went to his room on the second floor and I smiled at the room that was so very different from the one that had been in Sunshine. It was a corner room and two of the walls were nothing but windows, including the door the led out to a small balcony. Up against one window wall was a black leather couch and up against the wall that didn't have the exit door were shelves that covered almost the entire wall. The shelves held his stereo system, his hundreds of CD's, and his various books.

"Hmm, very you," I said. He raised an eyebrow and inquired,

"Really? How so?"

I shrugged. "It just is. The whole room screams 'Edward!'"

"Hmm and have rooms screamed at you before?" He joked. I elbowed him in the stomach playfully but lightly because any harder and I would have only bruised myself. He feigned hurt before chuckling.

"Ha ha," I responded sarcastically but couldn't keep a smile from spreading across my face.

He wrapped an arm around me. "Come on, let's go see your room."

"Oh, yay." My bedroom was just a few doors down and when he opened the door I shook my head.

The large room was light purple with a large flowery pattern etched around the top of the wall. The bed was up against a corner and beside it was a large window. Up against one wall was two large bookshelves that had all my books on it and beside it was, believe it or not, a purple desk with what looked like an outrageously expensive laptop and printer on it. There was also a dresser that had my stereo on it and a black CD storage box. Judging by the number of doors in the room it was safe to say that there was also a private bathroom.

This was all fine except that all my life I had slept in a twin size bed and now all the sudden there was a queen sized bed. Alice. Much to conveniently, Alice appeared at the door. She walked in and sat down on the large bed with a smile.

"Do you like it?" She asked and I heard the double meaning.

"Mhmm," I responded as my whole face grew pink.

"I thought you would," she replied simply as she stood up and headed for the door. On her way out she turned back and winked at me before disappearing down the hallway.

But all and all the transition was fine and that night I went to slept just fine but I'm pretty sure that had a lot to do with Edward humming my lullaby till I fell asleep.

That morning I awoke to the smell of bacon and no Edward in my bed. I miraculously made it down stairs to the kitchen without falling and fount Edward cooking.

"Yum," I said as I sat down at the counter. He smiled and came over to me.

"Good morning," he responded and bent down to kiss me lightly on the lips before asking, "Does it smell alright?"

I nodded. "Smells delicious."

"Good," he said as made me a plate. The food consisted of some kind of omelet, fried potatoes, and crispy bacon. "I wasn't really sure if it turned out right."

It was more than right. For as good as it smelled it tasted ten times better.

"This amazing!" I exclaimed. He sat down beside me and chuckled.

"I'm glad." I sat there with him enjoying a great breakfast completely unaware of what was heading our way.


	29. Chapter 29

As Edward and I cleaned up from breakfast he suddenly became very still.

"If I asked you to go to your room and stay would you listen?" He asked as he headed into the living room. I followed him. "Of course not," he muttered.

Suddenly the whole family was in the living room.

"What's going on, Edward?" Asked Carlisle.

"The wolves. They're coming to talk," he spat through gritted teeth.

"I can't see them!" Alice shrieked. Werewolves? Now? We've barely been here a day!

"Bella go to your room," ordered Mom.

I scoffed. "No way." She and Dad looked shocked.

The next command came from Dad. "Bella, go!"

I stood my ground. "No."

"It's too late anyway," growled Edward. "They're practically here." Both my parents glared at me but said nothing. I'd have to pay for that later. A moment later I saw a truck and a car appear.

Six freakishly tall, tan, and muscular boys climb out of the vehicles looking angry.

"How do they know we're here?" I asked. Edward provides a one word answer,

"Smell." Right. They could probably smell the vampire scent. Immediately one of the boys stands out, mostly because he's not a boy. The others face looked young but this one looked older, probably late twenties, and he walked ahead of the others and more confident. The leader?

His knock was loud and swift. No one moved. He knocked again. Are we seriously going to pretend there aren't six giant boy-wolves outside our door? On the third knock I rolled my eyes and opened the door. There supposed to protect humans so how bad could it be? There arms were all crossed but when they saw me there arms went slack.

"You're human," said the evident leader in a deep voice. How do I responded to that? Duh, maybe?

"Uh, yeah I am," I opened the door wider giving them access to a full view of the living room including my vampire family. The leader pushed passed me.

"Why of course you can come in. Thanks so much for asking," I muttered sarcastically as the rest of the boys followed. I closed the door and rejoined my family, most of them looked pissed. At me? Possibly. No one spoke for several seconds until Carlisle broke the silence.

"Hello. My name is Carlisle. Let me introduce you to the rest of my family: Edward, Bella, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, and my wife Esme. We moved here yesterday."

The leader spoke again. "Sam. This is Embry, Paul, Quil, Jacob, and Jared. Why is there a human with you?" As Carlisle began to explain my story I looked at the boy called Jacob and realized he looked strangely familiar but I couldn't place it.

"...and they've raised her ever since," Carlisle finished.

"You have kept and raised a human?" Sam asked, showing no attempt to hide his disgust. That's when images of me making mud pies with a small tan boy flashed through my head.

"Woah, wait a second. Jacob? As in Jacob Black?" I asked the muscular Jacob, completely astounded. Could this seriously be the boy I used to make mud pies with in the park? He eyed me for several moments in confusion before some sort of realization seemed to strike across his face.

"B-Bella Cullen?" He asked, stepping forward. I nodded. Everyone eye us.

"We used to make mud pies and play house together," I said in explanation.

"Wow, you still remember too?" He asked, shocked.

"Uh, yeah. How could I forget that?" He smiled and so did I. It was so cool to remember someone from Forks—even if they were a werewolf.

"Yeah, uh, that's great and all but you know you really shouldn't live here with _them. _You could come stay with one of us at La Push if you wanted," Sam offered.

"Thanks for the offer but, no. I'm perfectly fine here."

Jacob's face sank. "At least come back with to La Push so we can all talk more about. After a few hours, if you still don't want to stay there we'll bring you back." I weighed the pros and cons in my head and decided I'd like to go. What's the worst that could happen? Besides, I'd like to get to talk more with Jacob.

"Sure, I'll come." My family is _so _going to kill me.


	30. Chapter 30

_**Flashback:**_

"_Yay!" I cheered as Daddy parked our car in the parking lot of the park. It was Friday and Jakey was _always _at the park on Friday._

_"You excited baby?" Daddy asked as he unbuckled me from my car seat. I nodded happily. I was gonna play with Jakey. _

_Daddy helped me out of the car and held my hand as we walked to the playground. Daddy sat down on a bench in the small playground and let go of my hand._

_"Be careful, okay? Don't leave my sight," Daddy said._

_"Okay Daddy." _

_I looked around the playground and saw Jakey sitting in the mud. I ran over to him._

_"Hey Jakey! Whatcha doin'?"_

_"Making a pie. Wanna help?" _

_"Sure." I flopped down into the mud, knowing Mommy would be mad that I got my outfit all muddy but I didn't then. I wanted to make pie with my bestest friend._

Practically running out the door, I stayed in front of the werewolves,using them as shields so my family couldn't yank me back inside. Once I was outside Jacob led me to the truck and I climbed in. My whole family had now run outside.

"Bella! Get back inside," Mom screeched. I just waved innocently. Everyone else was, for the most part, ignoring them. One of the larger of the boys, Paul, climbed into the backseat of the truck and then Jacob got in the drivers side. As we drove away I looked back to see some very angry vampires.

Oh I knew there would be so much hell to pay later on but at the moment I was very concerned. Curiosity was burning through me about this strange back of boys that made me want to go with them and get to know them. Well, that was partially it.

The other part was Jacob. Sure, we hadn't spoken in around twelve years but I still remembered him. I didn't remember any other children that I might have played with in small park in the center of Forks but I had very clear images of a sweet and funny boy in my head and I wanted to know if he'd grown up to be the same.

My phone began vibrating almost non stop the moment we were out of the driveway.

**Alice: What are you doing? They're dangerous and I can't see your future when you're with them!**

**Edward: Do you have ANY idea how unstable wolves are?! Get back here.**

**Mom: Back here! Now!**

There were texts from the others and they all pretty much said the same thing. So I sent a text to everyone in my family before turning my phone on silent.

**Me: Guys, I'm fine. Werewolves protect humans, remember? Not sure how long I'll be but I'll call you in a couple hours. Love you.**

"Who you textin'?" Jacob asked curiously.

"My family. My parents are having a stroke." So is everyone else.

"They're not really your family," Paul said rudely. I turned to face him.

"You ever known someone who's been adopted?" I asked. He gave a half-nod. "Would you ever walk up to them and say 'that's not you're real family'?"

"Well, I-I, um, that's not the same thing!"

"Really? How so? Those are the people that raised me when my mother dropped me off on there doorstep. They've taken care of me ever since then. Oh but please, tell me how it's different." I was mad.

"They're not _people_. They're evil blood-sucking vampires." That made my blood boil.

"How much do you really know about vampires? I'm sure you've heard your tribes legends and the stories of your people but how many vampires have you seen before today? Probably none. You no nothing about my family, there lifestyle, or vampires in general. I, on the other hand, have lived with seven vampires for nearly seventeen years. I think I'd know just a tad bit more about vampires than you would.

"So, next time you decide to call a vampire evil or insult one in any way you might want to think about how little you know about them." He was completely shocked and he looked deep in thought. I glanced at Jacob who's brow was furrowed and appeared to also be thinking about what I'd said.

I suddenly had a mission. I was going to talk to these werewolves and tell about vampires and my family. I was sure they'd never be best friends with a vampire but, at the very least, I could educate them and maybe, just _maybe_ they might not think of them as 'evil blood-sucking vampires'. Oh yes...I hatched a plan.


	31. Chapter 31

Jacob pulled up to a little red house with a ramp leading to the door and I noticed the car pull in behind us.

"Where are we?" I asked as he climbed out of truck.

"Home," he stated. I began climbing out of truck and asked,

"Yours?" He nodded. "Cool." The rest of the boys began to gather near us.

"Follow us," Sam ordered me. Walking beside Jacob, I followed the boys onto a trail in the woods around Jacob's house. While we were walking I asked,

"So, this whole werewolf thing, how long you been doing that?"

He chuckled at my phrasing. "About six months, I guess."

I was very curious so I continued to pry. "Are you the youngest of the pack, then?"

"Um, no. Embry is actually. I was third to join the pack."

"Oh, why don't we just tell her all our secrets, Jacob," Paul growled, aggravated.

"I'll find out eventually anyway."

"Oh, really? How?"

"My boyfriend's a mind reader."

"We'll that's wonderful," he growled and I shrugged. "I suppose now you're going to tell us that you have an aunt who's a pixie."

"Actually, no. But I do have an aunt in Denali who just loves obnoxious werewolves," I said, only directed at him. Some of the other boys snickered.

I was so distracted that I almost didn't notice our arrival at a large brown cabin that had a large porch with several chairs on it. It was pretty.

"Welcome to the pack house," Said the boy I think was Quil.

"Come on Bella. You can meet fiancée, Emily," Sam said, heading into the cabin. As I walked up to the porch one of the muscular boys stopped me.

"Hey! I'm Embry." He seemed happy.

"Bella."

"Yeah, I know. Look, I just wanted to warn you not stare. It bothers Sam." Huh?

I walked into a large living room which also consisted of lots of seating. I saw a young woman in a blue apron holding a basket of what appeared to be muffins. It wasn't until I saw her face that I understood Embry's comment. Half of Emily's tan have was mauled and scarred with a huge animal print. I tried really hard not to stare. Sam walked up to her and kissed her lovingly with no hesitation. They must really be in love. When she noticed me she separated from him and walked towards me, extending her hand, which I took.

"Hello, I'm Emily. It's nice to meet you." I smiled. Her voice was kind and inviting.

"Hi. I'm Bella."

"Right. The vampire girl." Someone must have called and told her about me on our way over.

I laughed a little. "So, does that make you the wolf girl?"

She chuckled. "I suppose it does!"

I like her. I smiled and she gestured for me to sit so I did. She held the muffin basket out to me.

"Here, have a muffin. There chocolate chip."

"Thanks," I said as I took one gratefully and was glad I did because the moment she sat the basket down almost all of them were gone.

"Oh, you boys are savages," she scolded but yet her voice was still kind. I ate a small piece of muffin as Sam spoke,

"Tell us about your, uh, family." Here was my chance to educate.

"Gladly. Now, all of you think my family is evil, correct?" Most just stared but Paul nodded. "Well you couldn't be more wrong. My family are just about some of the kindest people I've ever met. You see, there not like most other vampires.

"Most other vampires are bloodthirsty and, well, evil. They prey on weak-minded humans mainly. Sometimes to quench there thirst, sometimes for sport, and other times just for fun. My family is not like that though.

"My family made the hard decision to turn away from human blood and you don't understand how hard that is. When a vampire is around humans, especially a new vampire, it's like shoving a hot branding iron down there throats. They crave blood, they need it and the automatic instinct is to hunt humans, but they turned away from it.

"My family strives to be good people and do the right thing and they always succeed. When I was dropped on there doorstep, they took me in and raised me. There's not many humans that would do that.

"Carlisle is a doctor. He spends his entire life saving people not hurting people. His wife, Esme, has a heart of gold and would do anything to help someone in need. My mother, Rosalie, she can be mean sometimes but she always means well. She had her human life taken away by men who brutally attacked her in an ally and left her for dead. She was barely alive when Carlisle fount her. She later saved my Dad, Emmett, from a bear attack. He's one of the funniest guys around.

"Then there's Alice. She sees the future and try to use that to help. She sweet and way too energetic and has a major obsession with fashion. Her husband Jasper fought in the Civil War before having his human life taken away by three evil women vampires that forced him to aid them in vampire wars because he has a talent for being able to read, and change, emotions. They took advantage of him and he is still a really cool guy.

"My boyfriend, Edward, was dying of Spanish Influenza when Carlisle fount him. He's a wonderful man and always has been." My voice became thick as I continued, "My own birth mother became a vampire sometime after I was born and she had to drop me off on a doorstep because the Volturi, the vampire royalty, came after her most likely just because they didn't like her. She is now dead."

No one was eating anymore...


	32. Chapter 32

**A/N: Hey guys! I know I don't often talk to you guys but the story has finally starting to come down to either Edward or Jacob. I'm pretty sure it will be a Bella/Jacob but I'm leaving some wiggle room in this chapter because I want your input. And mainly, will you guys still read this if it does become a Bella/Jacob? I want your input! Review because after this chapter It's gonna be decided. Review!**

**Oh, and I know it's major short but it is almost midnight my time and besides, it's just a small transition chapter anyway.**

"That's a..." Sam seemed to be at a loss for word.

"Horrible," Embry breathed.

"Yeah, it is. But each of them rose above there past," I explained.

"I still don't trust them," Paul defended.

"Me either, but they clearly pose no real threat to Bella herself," said Sam. Jacobs eyes widened and the two of them shared a glance I couldn't quite understand. Sam nodded and turned to me. "That being said Bella, if at anytime you change your mind or just need a place to stay you're welcome here. Emily, will you show her the spare bedroom?"

Jacob jumped up. "Don't worry Emily, I will."

He led me down a narrow hallway with wooden planks that had picture of everyone hanging. I couldn't imagine any of these testosterone fueled boys hanging pictures of themselves up so I suspected that was Emily's work. He led me past several wooden doors to one close to the end of the hallway. The room was fairly spacious with purple sheets on a queen size bed, a small vanity table, a set of large wooden drawers, and a door I assumed led to the closet.

"Do you like it?" He asked.

I shrugged. "It's nice but I already have a home."

"We'll see," Jacob muttered. I ignored that mostly because I didn't understand it.

"Look, I should really get home. My family is already freaked out. I shouldn't push it." As I said it, I realized I didn't really want to leave. I wanted to spend more time with Jacob.

"No! Come on, let me show you the beach at least."

"Um, okay." I said goodbye to the wolves and thanked Emily for the muffin and then we were outside again.

The beach was really pretty. The water seemed to be a darker shade of blue than any water I'd seen before and the sand was very soft. We sat down a large bolder that had an eroded flat top and talked.

Jacob wanted to know all about me. He asked so many questions that I barely had the chance to ask him any questions and the few I did ask seemed a little silly to me but I wanted to know everything. I managed to learn a few things though: he preferred Jake, his favorite color was dark brown, his fathers name was Billy, his favorite food was a medium rare steak, and he was a mechanic.

It was nice spending time with Jake. He had a fun personality and seemed to be, for the most part, fairly laid back. Eventually though, I had to face the facts that it was time to go home. As he pulled into my driveway I was painfully aware of scary mad vampires on the porch.

"I wanna see you again. Soon," Jake said.

"Um, I don't know if that's a good idea," I forced out.

"Why not?" He asked, alarmed. I gestured towards my family. "You're gonna let them keep you from having friends?"

"No. I mean, that's not what's happening."

Yeah, it is. My subconscious was angry.

No it's not. They're just being protective. I argued.

Either way! If you want to see him, see him.

"If that's not what's happening then I'll be here tomorrow at ten to pick you up." I so fell into that.

"Fine. I'll see you then." He smirked and I rolled my eyes. As I stepped out of the truck and shut the door I couldn't help but want to jump back in the truck and go to the pack house.

_Weird..._


	33. Chapter 33

**A/N: The people have spoken and I agree so...Edward/Bella it is! I hope no one is too upset and that you all continue to read.**

"Do you know how irresponsible that was?" Dad yelled as I walked inside. Crap... You knew there was trouble when Dad was mad.

"That was beyond irresponsible, it was stupid!" Yelled Mom.

"I was so worried. Do you know how many times I almost crossed the border onto there territory to come get you? I almost broke the treaty!" This came from Edward who was clearly the most upset. He was standing across the room, his hands in tight fists at his sides and this eyes were black. He was my primary concern. My Edward.

"I'm sorry guys. I'd say that I wish I hadn't gone but I don't. I think my visit to La Push was...beneficial. Plus, they're nice guys."

"Nice guys that turn into big uncontrollable wolves!" Dad chided. Well, there was that tiny detail.

"What do you mean by beneficial?" Carlisle asked, trying to be rational but you could tell he wasn't happy either.

"Well they really hate you guys and were under the impression that you were awful people. I told them more about you and there opinions of you changed...slightly," I tried to explain.

"And that was worth risking your safety?" Mom was still yelling.

"First of all, I don't think they're that dangerous. I was pushing Paul's buttons pretty hard and he never came close to phasing into wolf form. Second of all, yeah it was worth it." There was science for what felt like an eternity. Finally Mom some in a more measured tone,

"You're grounded for two weeks."

I sighed. "Fair enough." She continued,

"And if you think you're seeing that dog tomorrow you are so wrong."

"I'm sorry but I am going to see him tomorrow. It sucks that you don't see it as a good thing but that is your problem." She growled before huffing away with Dad following. I sighed and walked over to my very angry Edward pulling on his arm.

"Come on." He left me pull him up the stairs but his hands were still baffled into fists and his teeth were gritted. When we got to my bedroom, I closed the door and wrapped my arms around his hard figure, burying my head in his chest.

"I'm still angry," he said through his teeth.

"I know," I replied. He took a deep breath and wrapped his arms around me, loosening his fingers somewhat.

"I was so worried," he practically choked out.

"I know. I'm so sorry you were worried."

"This Jacob guy, you really think he's not dangerous?" He asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I do Edward. You're just going to have to trust me."

"I do trust you. It's them I don't trust."

"Well you'll have to learn."

He snorted but turned serious. "Please, just, just don't upset them. Be careful and if something goes wrong, anything at all, call me."

"I will," I promised. Just like that it was over and my loving and still overprotective Edward was back, angry Edward long forgotten. We laid around for awhile on my bed.

"So no dates for two weeks?" Edward said as I laid on top of him.

"Mhmm, how will we survive?" I asked as I kissed his his neck. He flipped me over so that he was suddenly on top of me, making me giggle.

"Oh I'm sure we'll figure it out." He kissed me briefly before flipping onto his back. Tease.

"So what should we do now?"

"I have a couple of ideas." He took me to the piano room where he played a few beautiful songs for me, afterwards he ordered Italian food and then we settled on the couch and watched a movie about a married couple in there twenties where we were joined by the family making it impossible for us to make out but I was okay with that because it gave Dad and I a chance to talk so I was happy when he sat down beside me.

"Dad," I began but he interrupted.

"That was so careless Bella." He said, glaring down at me.

"Yeah, I'm beginning to gather that," I muttered.

"Good. You had everyone worried and upset."

"I know. I'm sorry." His face softened.

"Don't be so reckless again."

"I wont. I'm sorry Daddy." Knowing he melted when I called him Daddy, he wrapped his arm around me.

"It's okay, baby." After then I was able to enjoy the movie, knowing the worst was over.

After the movie Edward and I played chess with Alice and Jasper. Alice didn't seem angry which is why I was so surprised that Jasper was. While we were playing chess and he continued to glare at me I snapped,

"Yes, I know it was irresponsible so you can drop the 'I'm pissed at Bella' routine, okay?"

"Do you? I get what you're trying to do and its very noble but the wolves are natural enemies of vampires. You can't change that."

"That's crap and if anyone cared enough to try you'd be surprised by what could happen. Check."

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

Don't I though? Checkmate. If that's not a sign that I'm right then I don't know what is." I'd never won at chess against them before and everyone stopped to stare at the chess board. Oh yeah...


	34. Chapter 34 Part One

Waking up next to Edward when the Sun's coming up is...magnificent. His diamond face smiles at me as I awake.

He kisses my forehead, causing shivers to run down my spine. "Good Morning," he murmmered.

"Good Morning," I responded breathily.

"Sleep well?"

"Yeah. Why, did I say anything tonight?"

He nuzzled against my ear. "Just that you loved me."

"Hmm, well as long as it's something true." I kissed him and then rested my head in the nape of his neck. We stayed like this for several minutes but eventually I got up and took a shower. After dressing in a plaid button-up shirt, a pair of denim jeans, and Converse shoes I left the bathroom only to find Edward had changed and his shirt eerily similar to mine.

"It would seem we're dressed alike today." He smiled. How embarrassing. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. He brushed my cheeks with his thumbs. "You look beautiful, love." I smiled shyly. "Why don't we get you some breakfast?"

My stomach growled. "Sure." Once we were downstairs he asked,

"What would you like?"

I smiled. "Watch me hunt." I grabbed a bowl, the box of Ressee Puffs®, and a carton of milk. Once I'd made my bowl of cereal I sat down at the kitchen isle with a satisfied smile. "What do you think of my hunting?"

"Very skilled." He smirked.

"Well skilled is my middle name."

After I ate we went into the living room to find Alice, Jasper, and an upset looking Mom. I looked at the clock and I knew why she was upset. 9:30. Jake would be here soon. As Edward and I sat down she said,

"Bella, we need to discuss the terms of your grounding."

I scoffed. "Hmm believe it or not I've been grounded before."

"Well it's different now that you'll be in school!"

I couldn't resist. "Oh wait! Should I be writing this down?" I asked sarcastically. Edward, Jasper, and Alice all failed yahoo house there laughter, earning them glare from Mom.

The terms of my punishment were not unreasonable: On school nights I had to be home at five, on the weekends I got four hours of freedom, and I could use my phone for up to one hour a day excluding emergencies.

As she was finishing explaining this to me I saw Jake pull up in his truck. Everyone was still but me. I ran outside. He stepped out of the truck.

"Hey Bells."

"Hey Jake."

"What do you wanna do today?"

"Um, I'm not sure, considering I'm grounded." I would go somewhere with him but I wanted too save my four hours of freedom for Edward.

"Oh, okay. You wanna go for a walk?" He gestured to the woods.

"Oh yeah that'd be great until we got lost."

He rolled his eyes. "Trust me we won't get lost. I know my way around woods fairly well. It's a wolf thing." Right.

"Sounds good except for the fact I can pretty much trip on anything."

"Don't worry, I'll catch you. Come on." He headed into the woods and I followed, laughing at his eagerness. We walked for about ten minutes before finding a flat place to sit down. I was glad we hadn't gone far from the house because Edward would be able to read Jake's mind and I knew that would give everyone some comfort.

Jake and I talked for about an hour and this time I got to learn about him. He was in the same grade as me though he was 16, he went to school and did almost eeverything else on the reservation, he was the second in command of his pack (I joked about him being the Beta), he spent most nights at the pack house though he lived in the small red house I saw yesterday, and he liked to fish with his Dad and his dad's friend Charlie.

He walked me back to the house, helping me not to fall and then we said our goodbyes. When I walked into my house I was glad to see that no one appeared angry, exept for Mom who was still aggravated. I kissed Edward and hugged him tight. Maybe I could really be friends with Jake.


	35. Chapter 34 Part Two

Settling into a new town was always difficult for me. Everyone always stared at us, and judged. I always felt like others were wondering what someone so clumsy an inept could be doing with people like them. But it had been a long time since I'd had to endure the awful stares of my peers constantly at a school.

I was not looking forward to school and the night before I ran through all the possible ways of getting out of it but could come up with nothing. Mom and Alice spent the entire day getting me prepared. First of course was the shopping. Apparently, I needed new clothes for school because the hundreds of outfits I already had just wouldn't do. So they forced me shopping and forced me to get so many outrageous outfits that I lost count. After that Alice demanded that I get a haircut and Mom agreed. My hair was a good six inches below my shoulders so I went along, semi-willingly.

After a ton of arguing I had ended up with the lady at the salon cutting off four inches, layering my hair, and giving it a left side part. It was a major compromise on my part. After that I had wanted to go home but I had forgotten one very important thing. School supplies. I didn't mind shopping at Office Depot in Portland because I was more in my element though they were still going overboard. By the time we left I had everything I could possibly need or want and more.

When we finally got back to the house I was shocked to find only Jasper and Esme.

"Where's everyone?" I asked as we brought the bags in.

"Hunting, except for Carlisle. He's at the hospital. Edward and Emmett are preparing for tomorrow. We'll be going once they get back." Oh. Edward went hunting? How come he didn't tell me? Suddenly Esme pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to me.

"Here, dear. Edward left this for you." Oh.

_My love,_

_I apologize for not telling you of our hunting trip but Alice insisted upon it. She wanted to ensure she had you all to herself for the day with Rosalie so the trip was spur of the moment. I had planned on going tonight. I'm already missing you. _

_I love you more than you understand,_

_Edward_

I felt better instantly but was no unsure of what to do. I had planned to spend time with Edward but since he was hunting I went to work on organizing all of my new supplies for school in my bedroom while Mom and Rosalie put my new clothes in my closet. Eventually Carlisle came home and soon after the others were home from hunting.

I went downstairs to meet Edward as they walked through the door with Alice skipping behind me.

"Hey," I greeted as Edward came up to me.

"Hi," He murmured before smiling, raising an eyebrow, and ran his fingers through a strand of my hair.

"Yeah, I got a haircut."

"What do you think?" Alice piped in impatiently from somewhere behind me.

He smiled my favorite crooked smile. "Beautiful as always," he responded before kissing me gently.

"Yeah, yeah. Could you not do that in front of me?" Dad asked. We separated a little and I blushed.

"Well, we should probably get going." Mom said, changing the subject.

"Oh, not yet," interjected Carlisle. He pulled six large manila envelopes out of his work briefcase. "I stopped by the high school on my way home to pick up these." Wonderful.

He handed out the envelopes and I opened mine hesitantly. There were two papers in the envelope. One was a letter welcoming me to the school with the principals signature stamped on it. The next was the my schedule:

_Forks High School Name: Hale, Isabell_e

_9010 Daniels Road, Student ID: 19615834492_

_Forks, WA Locker Number: 114_

_98113 Locker Combination: 32-18-21_

_Semester_

_1 Sociology - Carthage, Diana_

_Room 102_

_2 Pe - Loft, Jeff_

_Gym_

_3 AP Italian 3 - Daniels, Olivia_

_Room 212_

_4 Geometry - Gregory, Elliot_

_Room 128_

_5 Biology - Banner, Stan_

_Room 118_

_6 AP English 11 - Merinos, Sara_

_Room 114_

_7 Newspaper - Carrick, Greggory_

_Room 236_

Edward and I exchanged schedules. I had Sociology, Biology, English, and Italian with him and his last period was right next door to mine. This was good-ish. Of I wished I could have every single class with him but this was definitely better than nothing. After Edward and I had exchanged schedules everyone shared there schedule. Edward and I also had Sociology with Mom, I had PE with Alice, Geometry with Jasper, and the only class I was alone in was Newspaper. I was satisfied.

Shortly after this everyone went hunting leaving only Dad, Edward, and I in the house.

"What would you like for dinner tonight, love?" Asked Edward. Hmm. I was hungry and there was one thing that sounded really good.

"Let's order pizza."

"Are you sure you want to stay in?"

"Yeah, unless you don't want to."

He smiled. "Alright, pizza it is."

After the pizza came from Dominos came and I'd had all I wanted of it Edward and I went upstairs to my room and both took Sharpies and labeled our notebooks and binders according to our classes but it quickly became a little cluttered on my bed.

"You know what this room needs?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "No, what?" He was genuinely curious.

"More furniture. Especially seating. Like maybe a couch and a coffee table." It seemed like a good idea. Edward and I were spending a lot of time in my room and we liked to watch TV and movies in there but it wasn't very comfortable for me on the bed. Plus, with days like today were my school stuff's all over the place it be nice to have some more surface.

"You, Bella, wants to willing buy something? As in purchase?" He teased.

"Oh, haha. Yeah, I do."

"Okay, I bet when Alice comes back she'll be dying to take you furniture shopping or take you on that website she loves." No. No more shopping with Alice for awhile. The mention of that website gave me an idea and suddenly I laughed, sliding off my bed and going over to the computer on my desk.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Avoiding shopping with Alice."

He smirked. "She's going to be furious."

I giggled deviously. "I know. You wanna help?"

"Sure."

It took only an hour and a half and it was done. I had picked out a couch and table and Edward had made sure that they were in the right color—all the purple's looked the same to me—and ordered them in proper sizes. Edward wanted to pay for it but I had other plans. I dug through my drawers to find my old peace signed wallet and pulled out my own black debit card. I had only used it maybe once or twice and everyone was always encouraging me to so I figured I would.

After this little adventure my energy level had pretty much crashed to zero. I took a shower and when I got out I discovered that I'd forgotten a pajama shirt. I was freaking out because I knew Edward would be waiting out in my room. That's when I noticed one of Edwards white button up shirts hanging on the back of the door. I'd known for as long as we'd been dating that he sometimes used my shower at night and in the morning before I woke up but I'd never seen a sign of it in my bathrooms before. Normally, I wouldn't do this but I was desperate so I put on his shirt with my shorts and walked out of the bathroom. Sure enough, he was perched on the edge of my bed, waiting patiently.

When he stood with raised eyebrows he asked, "Any particular reason your wearing my shirt?" He was smiling.

"Uh, it smells nice." Which was true. It smelled just like him. Sweet and fresh like the air after a hard storm.

"Hmm, does it?" He brushed my cheek with his thumb. I nodded. "Interesting. You look nice." He kissed my neck.

"I do?"

"Always." He trailed kisses up my neck and then my chin to then finally reach my awaiting lips. His left hand cupped my face and his right and was at the base of my spine pushing me against his chest. After a blissful moment his left hand moved and he lifted me up and carried my to the bed, our lips never separating.

It was wonderful but the routine was always the same. We'd kiss and just as it became something deeper he'd pull away. So I savored my last few moments, tracing his lips with the tip of my tongue. My god, _the taste. _He sighed and pulled away.

"Bella..."

"Ugh," I groaned and laid back on the bed with a _plop_ but I didn't press the issue because I was aware that Dad was still in the house and could hear all of this. He smiled slightly and laid down beside me.

"Come on you need to get some sleep anyway."

We snuggled together. "Ugh. School's tomorrow."

"Uh-huh."

"This is gonna be awful," I groaned.

"It won't be that be that bad, love. Besides after the third or fourth time around you get used to it," he joked darkly and I smiled a little.

"I guess."

"You'll be fine. Don't worry about." He began to hum my lullaby so I burrowed my face into his chest and fount sleep.


	36. Chapter 36

I had gone to bed late and I could feel the moment that I awoke that

it was too early. I burrowed my head into Edward's chest and ignored

the rest of the world.

"You're awake early," Edward commented.

I groaned. "What time is it?"

"Four thirty, love." Oh, wonderful.

"Eek, why is it so early?" I groaned.

He chuckled. "How do I answer that?"

My mind was already waking up and I knew anymore sleep was probably

impossible. Groaning one more time I stood up and stretched heading

for the door.

"Where are you going?" He asked as he stood.

"Caffine," I explained. I wanted some coffee or tea or something to

wake me up.

"Uh, Bella..." He tried to warn but I was already on the stairs and

Mom was at the bottom. When she looked up and saw me her eyes

widened.

"What are you wearing?" She hissed. Oh, crap. I'd forgotten about

Edward's shirt.

"Uh, clothes," I said and pushed past her. I wasn't going to get in

a fight with her today. I headed into the kitchen to find Alice

there. Good, an ally.

"Rose, it's not what you think," Alice defended. Ugh, Alice had seen

that in a vision?

"Wait, what do you think, Mom?" I had a pretty good idea but the

fact that she would think that Edward and I would have sex with Dad in

the house was ridiculous and just plain. I was getting pretty sick of

Mom constantly finding something to pick a fight over about Edward and

I.

I poured myself a cup of coffee. "Look, Bella I trust you but-"

"You know what? Nevermind. I'm not going to argue with you today.

It doesn't matter." I practically gulped down most of my coffee and

set the cup on the counter. I was very eager to get out of there so I

refilled my coffee and grabbed a PopTart before darting up the stairs.

"Bella!" Mom called but I ignored her. When I got back to my bedroom

Edward sat there freshly changed into a light blue button up shirt and

dark pants.

"I tried to warn you," he said sympathetically. I sat down at my

desk and opened my PopTart.

"It doesn't matter."

"She means well."

I snorted. "Sure."

I'd just finished eating when someone knocked on the door. Edward

answered only to find Alice standing there.

"Alice, no," Edward groaned, already knowing what she wanted.

"Don't even argue, Edward. She's going to need my help so get out,"

she walked in like she'd been invited. Alice.

"Alice what do you want?" I asked.

She sighed like it was painfully obvious. "You need someone to help

you pick out an outfit for today and I have elected myself."

"Well, unelect yourself. I don't need your help."

"Clearly, you do," she gestured to my, er, Edward's shirt. "You're

not going to get out of this."

"Ugh!" I groaned and Alice smiled, satisfied.

Edward chuckled. "I'll see you downstairs." The minute he shut the

door Alice began.

First, Alice dragged me into the bathroom and plugged in the curling

iron. They weren't big curls just waves really. When this was done

she went to pick out my outfit. She tried to put me in a dress but I

shot that down immediately. Then she wanted me in a skirt and

leggings. That was a no as well. It went on like this for awhile

before she finally settled on letting me wear jeans but she did manage

to force me into a purple sweater.

After this she painted my nails purple and made me put on a pair of

purple Air Walks and put on a little makeup. After over an hour we

were done. I went ahead and grabbed my back pack and headed

downstairs even though it was only six. Edward, Dad and Carlisle were

already in the living room and Jasper came in behind Alice and I.

"Excited?" Carlisle asked. Oh, yeah. I was just thrilled to go to a

place full of hundreds of people gawking at me and my family. Of

course, I couldn't say this to him so I just smiled. I sat down with

Edward.

"You look beautiful," Edward murmured.

"Thanks," I muttered, none to thrilled that he liked the outfit Alice

picked out.

"Okay, come on. Picture time Bella!" Alice cheered pulling a red

digital camera out of her pocket.

"Um, no way Alice! I've been tortured enough by you today."

She rolled her eyes. "I hardly think I've tortured you. Now be reasonable."

She preceded so many pictures that about permanent blindness from the

flash. Shortly after the photo montage Esme came downstairs and said

goodbye to Carlisle who then left. It wasn't long after that we were

all-except Esme-in the garage deciding which cars to take to school.

Mom and Dad had bought me an outrageous car for my 16th birthday and

it sat in the back of the enormous garage collecting dust. So, Edward

and I were going in his silver Volvo. Mom and Dad were going in Dad's

Jeep and Jasper and Alice were taking her Pontiac G6.

Riding in a car with a vampire was always a speeding experience,

especially with Edward. He could never seem to drive below 80.

"This is gonna suck," I groaned at the passenger side window.

"I don't think you'll loathe it that much," he joked.

"It's not funny. I'm worried."

"Love, it'll be fine. Trust me. I've gone through this enough times

so I should know."

I sighed. "I hope you're right."

To my displeasure, we arrived at the school in hardly any time at all. As we pulled in to the school I took note of just how small it was. It appeared to have two or three stories but the over all shape of the brick school was small and rectangular. The students were already staring at our cars as we parked in the far corner. I noticed that all the students seemed relatively pale. Of course they were no where near as pale as my family or even me but I was fairly close to as pale as them.

Edward stepped out of the car first and (at human pace) to my side and opened the car door for me. Here it goes. I stepped out of car at the same time as the others of my family were joining us. When I was out of the car he wrapped his arm around me and was smirking which made me wonder if his sudden amusement was caused by one of the many starers thoughts. So many teens stared at us as we walked towards the building in astonishment, curiosity, and some looks that I did not appreciate being directed at my boyfriend. I tried to look as calm as I could and took deep slow breaths it was working to a degree but I felt like every stare was a hot red laser burning through my skin.

Finally we reached the two sets of glass double doors that were the entrance to the school and got a little relief as there were only a few people in the hallway, I assumed the majority of students were eating breakfast. Some of the students at least had the decency to attempt to hide there gawks but others openly examined us. The hallway was slim and mundane with white tile floor and blue lockers. There were a few doors that were labeled and led to various offices including the principal and counselor but the one we entered was the 'main office' where the school's secretary was.

She was a thin and blond woman busing herself on the black computer at her small desk. All of us squeezed in and she took our names to make sure we were all accounted for and offered to find students to show us around to our classes today but we all declined. When her eyes glossed over Edward I was disgusted because the secretary had to be at least forty.

Thankfully, we were out of the of the office shortly and Edward helped me to find my locker. My locker was not far from my first period class and his locker was only six down. I managed to get my locker open, which was a good sign, but i had nothing to put in it so I just shut it. Right after this the bell rang and Edward and I walked to Sociology.

When we arrived a few people were seated, including Mom. She was seated in a desk in the middle of the room. Ignoring her glare and others looks I took seat in the very back center and Edward sat down at a desk beside me. The room was small, painted an off white, and only had maybe twenty desks. At the front sat a young brunette women, in her twenties possibly, sitting at light blue metal desk, writing something in a notebook. The teacher I assumed.

There were three chalkboard in the room and one was labeled NOTES and that was it. Another read 'Mrs. Carthage'. As everyone slowly filed into the room and sat down Edward leaned over to whisper,

"Your mother's really mad."

I snorted. "Good."

He shook his head. "You don't mean that." I was aware that Mom could hear this conversation but I didn't care.

"And if I do?" He just sighed.

The bell rang and anyone standing quickly took a seat. Mrs. Carthage put down her pen and stood up.

"Good morning everyone and welcome to Sociology. I'm Mrs. Carthage. Now, before I say anything else, let's take attendance. When I call your name you hand and tell me if you go by a nickname." When she called my name I raised my hand and said,

"Bella." She made a note and moved on. After she was finished she spoke again in a lecturing tone.

"There we go. Now can anyone Sociology is?" When no one raised there hand she looked at every student. "How about you Bella?"

Ugh. "Sociology is a social science. It's the study of human society."

"Very good. What a perfect definition!" She exclaimed. Wonderful. She wrote the definition on the board and asked everyone to get out a notebook and writing utensil and copy the definition down.

The class went by fairly easily and we mainly took notes. When class was over I waited till Mom had left to leave with Edward. He walked me to the gymnasium and we kissed me as Alice walked up. He then left and Alice and I entered the gym. As it was the first day and no one had clothes to change into we spent the period 'getting to know each other'. Alice and I sat on a bleacher and talked the whole time. Alice wanted to talk about Mom but I was not interested.

I was with Edward again for Italian for the briefest of moments when the teacher gave everyone assigned seats and we were separated. I sat down in my assigned seat and next to me was a girl with very dark brown hair and glasses. When I sat down she smiled at me.

"Hey. I'm Angela."

"Oh, hi. I'm Bella."

"You're one of the new Cullens, right?"

"Um, yeah." Angela talked off and on through out the period. She seemed fairly nice and very smart. by the end of the period we had exchanged numbers and she was planning on texting me.

Lunch was really awkward. Edward and I sat at a table with the family. Everyone asked about my day so far except for Mom who did not speak. Other than that, the rest of the day was fairly smooth. When I reached my last class of the day, Newspaper, I discovered Angela was in this class as well. She introduced me to her friend Jessica. She seemed a little snobbish but overall nice. She and I exchanged numbers as well.

It had been a long day but all and all had not been bad. I might actually like high school.


	37. Chapter 37

"So, you're telling me that after all the complaining you did, you had fun?" Dad teased as we all sat in the living room, me eating Chinese.

"That's not what I said," I defended. "I said that it wasn't completely terrible. That's all." He laughed and rolled his eyes.

Alice was glaring at me. "I still can't believe you bought a couch without me."

I took another bite. "Yup. It should be here tomorrow. Same day shipping."

"Ugh. I didn't even know you knew how to use that debit card." She groaned. Truthfully, I didn't but it was pretty self-explanatory on the website.

"Oh come on Alice. It's just a couch." She 'hmph'ed and that was all. Then my cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Bells." It was Jake.

"Oh hey! What's up?" I could see frowns throughout the whole room.

"Nothing, I just got back from...that's not important. How was your first day of school in Forks?"

"Fine. A little boring. So when you say 'that's not important' you really mean 'I was out with my wolf pack', right?" I asked.

"Er, no?"

I laughed. "Do me a favor and never become an actor, 'Kay?"

"Haha, very funny. Fine, I was out with my pack. Why?"

"No reason. That's still really weird to me though." Picturing Jake as a werewolf was really hard.

"Coming from the girl who lives with vampires."

I frowned. "Hey, I'm used to that!"

"Really?"

"Really."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. And I should go now."

"Ah, how come?"

I looked around the room. "Well, when you're being glared at by an entire room, it's time to end the conversation."

He snorted. "Fine. Just remember, we still have that open room-" Crap.

"Yeah, yeah. Bye Jake." I hung up. I hadn't mentioned that offer to live with them to anyone.

"What was he talking about?" Mom demanded. It was the first thing she'd said to anyone since this morning.

"Oh, you're speaking now?" I asked as I stood, heading to the kitchen to throw away the leftover food. She followed me.

"Answer the question!"

I sighed. "It's nothing, okay? If it was something important I would have told you."

"Well, you thought it was important enough to hide it."

"Who's hiding anything? There is nothing of hide. Drop it." I left the kitchen and headed upstairs to my bedroom.

I sat at my desk and logged on to my laptop. I got on my email and fount seven new emails from Dana. My heart went out to her but as much as I wanted to, I couldn't respond to her emails. If I ever wanted to be a vampire, I had to learn to detach. I also needed to learn to get along with Mom but that of course goes both ways.

When a knock came to my door I almost told whoever it was to go away but then I remembered it was probably Edward and instead said, "Come in." Thankfully, it was him.

"Hey," he said as he came to stand behind me. "What are you doing?"

"Checking my emails. Though I'm not sure why because it always puts me in a bad mood."

"I've noticed. You should probably get a new account."

"Yeah, maybe later." I said, shutting my laptop and turning the chair to face him. "For now, I just wanna relax."

We spent the evening watching a movie and just talking. It was nice until he tried to bring up Mom.

"Look, I don't really wanna talk about her," I stopped him.

"Fine. Would you rather talk about Jacob?" I didn't quite understand his tone.

I asked, "What about him?"

"I don't think you should be talking to him or anyone in that pack."

"Oh god, not this again," I groaned.

"Bella it's outrageously dangerous."

"Don't you trust me?"

He sighed. "Of course I do but you don't understand. Werewolves are extremely unstable."

"Well Jake isn't and neither is the rest of the pack," I assured him.

"Really? You can't think of a single incident where those werewolves lost control?"

"No, absolutely not," I answered but my voice rose as I thought of Emily's scarred face.

He looked satisfied. "Exactly."

"Look, Jake is my friend and I trust him and the pack and I'm not going to stop talking to Jake. You have to trust that I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?"

"Yes. Now, goodnight." I turned off my beside lamp. We were finished for the night but I knew this discussion was far from over.

When I went down for breakfast the next morning Mom seemed to be trying to be civil and if she was trying so would I.

"Good morning," she greeted as I walked into the kitchen to find her sitting at the island with Jasper and Alice.

"'Morning," I replied. I made a bowl of cereal and sat down at the stool next to Jasper.

"So how was your night?" Mom asked.

I swallowed a bite of cereal. "Fine. Yours?"

"Just fine."

"Great." Well, we were speaking but apparently couldn't get out more than two words at a time to each other. The room elapsed in to an awkward silence. Fortunately, Dad came in a moment later.

"'Morning Bells." He gave me a hug.

"Good Morning,Dad."

"How'd you sleep?" He asked as he sat down next to Mom.

"Great."

"Awesome. So, what'd you do last night?" Wow, I could tell he was trying really hard to get a conversation going. I figured I'd help out.

"Edward and I watched a movie." It worked.

"Really? What movie?" Mom asked. Ooh, three words this time.

I responded with the same amount. "Romeo and Juliet."

Jasper snorted. "Again?"

"Yes, again. It's my favorite," I defended.

"So you don't have it memorized yet?" Alice joked.

"I would have thought your new movie favorite would be Wuthering Heights." My god, a full sentence from Mom.

"Nope. Not yet at least. For now I'll stick with Romeo and Juliet." It was no secret that I had a worn out copy of Wuthering Heights in my bedroom that had been read practically to death but the movie didn't seem to have the same appeal.

On the way to school Edward said, " So I saw you talked to Rosalie this morning."

"Yeah, I did," I replied simply.

"Does this mean you two are making up?" He asked.

"I don't know, maybe. We have a lot of issues though."

"Primarily me," he stated. I looked over, trying to read his face. He seemed careful.

I tried to explain it right, "Well, In a way, yes. You're really important to me and I love you and she doesn't really understand that. Until she does we're always going to have problems but that's more because of her than you." He nodded but did not reply, ending our conversation.

At the end of my second school day, we were pulling in to the driveway and who was waiting? None other than my new friend, Jacob Black.


	38. Chapter 38

"So, you're telling me that after all the complaining you did, you  
had fun?" Dad teased as we all sat in the living room, me eating  
Chinese.  
"That's not what I said," I defended. "I said that it wasn't  
completely terrible. That's all." He laughed and rolled his eyes.  
Alice was glaring at me. "I still can't believe you bought a couch  
without me." I took another bite. "Yup. It should be here  
tomorrow. Same day shipping."  
"Ugh. I didn't even know you knew how to use that debit card." She  
groaned. Truthfully, I didn't but it was pretty self-explanatory on  
the website.  
"Oh come on Alice. It's just a couch." She 'hmph'ed and that was all.  
Then my cell phone rang.  
"Hello?"  
"Hey, Bells." It was Jake.  
"Oh hey! What's up?" I could see frowns throughout the whole room.  
"Nothing, I just got back from...that's not important. How was your  
first day of school in Forks?"  
"Fine. A little boring. So when you say 'that's not important' you  
really mean 'I was out with my wolf pack', right?" I asked.  
"Er, no?"  
I laughed. "Do me a favor and never become an actor, 'Kay?"  
"Haha, very funny. Fine, I was out with my pack. Why?"  
"No reason. That's still really weird to me though." Picturing Jake  
as a werewolf was really hard  
"Coming from the girl who lives with vampires."  
I frowned. "Hey, I'm used to that!"  
"Really?"  
"Really."  
"Seriously?"  
"Seriously. And I should go now."  
"Ah, how come?" I looked around the room.  
"Well, when you're being glared at by an entire room, it's time to  
end the conversation." He snorted. "Fine. Just remember, we still  
have that open room-"  
Crap. "Yeah, yeah. Bye Jake." I hung up. I hadn't mentioned that  
offer to live with them to anyone.  
"What was he talking about?" Mom demanded. It was the first thing  
she'd said to anyone since this morning.  
"Oh, you're speaking now?" I asked as I stood, heading to the kitchen  
to throw away the leftover food.  
She followed me. "Answer the question!"  
I sighed. "It's nothing, okay? If it was something important I would  
have told you."  
"Well, you thought it was important enough to hide it."  
"Who's hiding anything? There is nothing of hide. Drop it." I left  
the kitchen and headed upstairs to my bedroom. I sat at my desk and  
logged on to my laptop. I got on my email and fount seven new emails  
from Dana. My heart went out to her but as much as I wanted to, I  
couldn't respond to her emails. If I ever wanted to be a vampire, I  
had to learn to detach. I also needed to learn to get along with Mom  
but that of course goes both ways. When a knock came to my door I  
almost told whoever it was to go away but then I remembered it was  
probably Edward and instead said,  
"Come in." Thankfully, it was him.  
"Hey," he said as he came to stand behind me.  
"What are you doing?"  
"Checking my emails. Though I'm not sure why because it always puts  
me in a bad mood."  
"I've noticed. You should probably get a new account."  
"Yeah, maybe later." I said, shutting my laptop and turning the chair  
to face him. "For now, I just wanna relax." We spent the evening  
watching a movie and just talking. It was nice until he tried to bring  
up Mom.  
"Look, I don't really wanna talk about her," I stopped him.  
"Fine. Would you rather talk about Jacob." I didn't quite understand his tone.  
I asked, "What about him?"  
"I don't think you should be talking to him or anyone in that pack."  
"Oh god, not this again," I groaned.  
"Bella it's outrageously dangerous."  
"Don't you trust me?" He sighed.  
"Of course I do but you don't understand. Werewolves are extremely unstable."  
"Well Jake isn't and neither is the rest of the pack, I assured him.  
"Really? You can't think of a single incident where those werewolves  
lost control?"  
"No, absolutely not," I answered but my voice rose as I thought of  
Emily's scarred face.  
He looked satisfied. "Exactly." "Look, Jake is my friend and I trust  
him and the pack and I'm not going to stop talking to Jake. You have  
to trust that I know what I'm doing."  
"Do you?"  
"Yes. Now, goodnight." I turned off my beside lamp. We were finished  
for the night but I knew this discussion was far from over.

When I went down for breakfast the next morning Mom seemed to be  
trying to be civil and if she was trying so would I.  
"Good morning," she greeted as I walked into the kitchen to find her  
sitting at the island with Jasper and Alice.  
"'Morning," I replied. I made a bowl of cereal and sat down at the  
stool next to Jasper.  
"So how was your night?" Mom asked. I swallowed a bite of cereal.  
"Fine. Yours?"  
"Just fine."  
"Great." Well, we were speaking but apparently couldn't get out more  
than two words at a time to each other. The room elapsed in to an  
awkward silence. Fortunately, Dad came in a moment later.  
"'Morning Bells." He gave me a hug.  
"Good Morning,Dad."  
"How'd you sleep?" He asked as he sat down next to Mom.  
"Great."  
"Awesome. So, what'd you do last night?" Wow, I could tell he was  
trying really hard to get a conversation going. I figured I'd help  
out.  
"Edward and I watched a movie." It worked.  
"Really? What movie?" Mom asked. Ooh, three words this time. I  
responded with the same amount.  
"Romeo and Juliet." Jasper snorted.  
"Again?"  
"Yes, again. It's my favorite," I defended.  
"So you don't have it memorized yet?" Alice joked.  
"I would have thought your new movie favorite would be Wuthering  
Heights." My god, a full sentence from Mom.  
"Nope. Not yet at least. For now I'll stick with Romeo and Juliet."  
It was no secret that I had a worn out copy of Wuthering Heights in my  
bedroom that had been read practically to death but the movie didn't  
seem to have the same appeal.  
On the way to school Edward said, "So I saw you talked to Rosalie  
this morning."  
"Yeah, I did," I replied simply.  
"Does this mean you two are making up?" He asked.  
"I don't know, maybe. We have a lot of issues though."  
"Primarily me," he stated. I looked over, trying to read his face. He  
seemed careful. I tried to explain it right,  
"Well, In a way, yes. You're really important to me and I love you  
and she doesn't really understand that. Until she does we're always  
going to have problems but that's more because of her than you."  
He nodded but did not reply, ending our conversation. At the end of  
my second school day, we were pulling in to the driveway and who was  
waiting? None other than my new friend, Jacob Black.

"Hey Jake, whatcha doing here?" I asked hopping out of Edwards car  
and walking over to meet him.  
"Came if you wanted to come hang out with me at my house for awhile."  
I looked back at Edward who was glaring at Jacob. He clearly didn't  
want me to go but he needed to learn how to trust me.  
"Sure. What are we gonna do?"  
"I was think study. As long as you don't mind my Dad and his buddy  
Charlie watching a football game. Who knows? I might even help you  
with your homework."  
I laughed. "Aren't you a Sophmore? I think it's more likely that  
I'll help you."  
He rolled his eyes. As I headed to climb into his truck, Edward  
tried to object,  
"Bella-"  
I cut him off. "Trust me," is all I said before closing the door to  
the truck. As we were driving down the driveway Mom and Dad were  
pulling in, glaring at us. Oops.  
We drove to his little red house and headed inside. It was small and  
nice but you could tell that only guys lived there. Sitting in front  
of the television were two older men one of which I knew had to be  
Jacobs father by his russet skin and wheelchair. The other man was a  
pale man with black curly short hair and dark brown eyes. That must  
have Charlie. When they saw us, Charlie stood.  
"Hello I'm-" he stopped and froze, his hand held out half way to me.  
"Um, are you okay?" I asked.  
He responded to my voice. "I-I'm sorry. It's just your eyes. They  
remind me of my daughter Isabella. She went missing when she was a  
baby."  
I froze. No, it wasn't possible. I coughed. "Oh, uh, what was her  
middle name?" This wasn't happening. No, no, no.  
"Marie. Isabella Marie."  
Oh my God...


	39. Chapter 39

"Daddy! Mom!" Oh, god. I am freaking out. It wasn't possible. Charlie couldn't be my biological father...could he? The second he said his daughters name was Isabella Marie I dashed out of there and had Jacob drive me home. Unfortunately, Charlie had followed and was now at the door. Esme, Edward, Jasper, Carlisle, and Alice came into the room. No Mom or Dad.

"Bella, are you okay?" He asked, coming to me worriedly. I laughed shakily and it sounded kind of hysterical.

"Where's Mom and Dad?" I asked practically at a whisper.

"There out hunting honey. How is that?" Esme asked gesturing to the door. I took a few deep breaths, steadying myself.

"That's a good question. I should get the door." I turned to the door to see Charlie. I hadn't noticed until then his uniform. A cop.

I opened the door trying to act surprised. "Oh hi. Did you follow us? Uh, sorry I ran out of Jake's like that."

"Um, that's fine. Can-can I come in?"

_No, leave!_ I wanted to shout. Instead I went with, "Oh, sorry. Of course you can."

He came running his hand through his curly yet short brown hair.

"Hello, I'm Carlisle, Bella's father and this is Esme and my children," Carlisle said calmly holding his hand out to Charlie. Everyone in the room was silent as they shook hand. Where they noticing the resemblance? Surely I couldn't be the only one who noticed my eyes printed on his face as though the exact same and his hair being the same shade of brown as mine? The look on Alice's face told me I wasn't. Oh god. I was freaking out until I felt a wave of calm. I smiled at Jasper, a silent thank you. But even with Jasper helping I still felt like i was gonna puke.

"Oh, it's nice to meet you. I just um, I came to ask uh Bella a question." He turned to me. "Um, I wanted to know what, um, what is your full name?" He looked so hopeful, so desperate and I was gonna lie to him.

"Oh its Isabelle Carmen Hale." His face fell and he looked as though he'd just aged ten years.

"Um, okay. It's a very pretty name. I'm so sorry it's just you, well you remind me so much of my daughter Isabella. I always think of her sitting in some house with her mother safe her side. Her mother went missing the same day," he explained, looking extremely depressed.

I shouldn't have but I had to say something. "I'm sure that whatever happened to them that she's fine."

He smiled a little. "You think?"

I cleared my throat. "Yeah, yeah I do. Uh, moms are pretty good with that kinda stuff."

"Maybe. Um, I'm really sorry about this. I'll just be leaving."

He headed towards the door. "It was no problem really. I guess I'll see you."

"Um, yeah. See you." I watched as he got in his police car and drove off, not sure how I felt.

"Bella was that..." Jasper tried to ask but he trailed off.

"My biological father? Yeah, I think so." I fainted.


	40. Chapter 40

**Woo! Chapter 40 has arrived! This is a very special chapter so please comment! This book is getting pretty big so who thinks I should start a second one soon? Let me know and in the mean time...ENJOY!**

* * *

When I opened my eyes and slowly came to my senses I realized I was laying on Carlisle's medical table in his office, my head propped up by a pillow. I was surrounded by everyone including Carlisle, who was checking my pulse. I sat up and I felt slightly sedated and calm. No doubt thanks to Jasper. I sat up, against Carlisle's protests.

"Are you okay, Bella? Emmett and Rose are on their way home," Edward asked and informed looking extremely concerned.

"Uh, I think I'm fine. I feel really um dizzy though."

"Well, you did just pass out," said Jasper a little sarcastically.

"No, really?" I responded sarcastically.

"Bella, sweetie do you wanna talk about" I cut Esme off.

"No. I don't wanna talk about it."

"But Bella-" I cut Alice off as well.

"No! I'm not talking about it! Drop it!" I stormed out of Carlisle's office and up to my room, slamming the door.

I plopped onto my bed and stared at the ceiling. This wasn't fair. I'd grown up my entire live with two amazing adoptive parents and a wonderful family with lots of love and happiness and now the stupid town of Forks was threatening that by throwing Charlie in my face. As immature and futile as it was I figured it wasn't happening that this would all go away.

I mean, there was no real evidence that Charlie was my biological father. A name and a matching pairs of eyes didn't prove anything. Even if he was my biological father, I wasn't going to tell him. What would that even be like:

_Hi. I forgot to tell you that your wife was somehow turned into a vampire, dropped me off at this house full of vampires, after getting into trouble with the vampire royalty, The Volturi. Oh and, she's probably dead. Just thought you should know._

No. It was better this way. He was under the delusion that his wife and daughter were tucked away somewhere safe, happy, and most importantly: normal. I wasn't gonna crush this delusion for him and I certainly wasn't about to admit that he was my father. Emmett Cullen was my _only_ father and Rosalie Hale was my _only _mother. End of discussion.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by a knock on the door. A loud hard knock that I recognized immediately. Dad! I ran to the door and sure enough, standing there was a concerned Mom and Dad. I threw my arms around both of them in a tight hug.

"Oh Bella..." Mom murmured.

"Baby, we heard what happened. We have to talk about this." Dad said.

"No, we don't," I muttered.

"You know we do. Why don't we go downstairs and talk about this, huh?"

"Fine," I grumbled.

Once we were all in the living room I sat down on the couch next to Edward, resting my head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around me.

"So Bella, I know how stressful this must be for you," Carlisle began, "And I know you don't want to talk about what just happened here but I really think we should."

"What is there to talk about. We don't know anything."

"Bella..." This came from Edward.

"Okay, so maybe we do. But I don't see what there is to talk about."

"How about, what to do? Bella we want you to know that whatever you want to do, whatever you _decide _to do, we'll support you," Mom responded comfortingly. Whatever tension there'd been between the past few weeks had disappeared.

What I decided? Could I stick with my decision? I had to. I just had to. "I'm just not going to do anything. I mean, what is there to do? Who knows? I might never see him again."

Carlisle responded, "Or you may run into him all the time. Are you sure this is what you wanna do?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

_**A Few Hours Later**_

After all the days drama I tried to settle down. At around five o'clock my purple couch arrived and I, along with Dad's help, directed the delivery boys to my room. I normally spend my afternoons with Edward but today I just wanted to spend time with Dad. After my couch was safe in my bedroom Dad and I watched some TV. After which we ordered pizza for me and started playing video games. During this the pizza came and we stopped for a while so I could eat before continuing. I only won once but even then I felt like he let me win.

We were watching a movie when I felt the need to say something to him.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?" He asked.

"I love you." I wrapped my arms around him on the couch.

He squeezed me tight. "Oh, I love you too, girly, and no matter what happens with this Charlie guy, I'm always gonna love you."

"Thanks, Dad."

"Of course, maybe you'll wanna start calling me Emmett now," He joked and I glared up at him.

"Kidding," he chuckled out before kissing me on the cheek. "Okay girly, it's late. You should get to bed."

I stood up. "Alright. Goodnight, Dad."

"'Night, baby girl."

When I got to my bedroom I was happy to see Edward waiting to reunite with me. I embraced him eagerly, ready to put this day behind me.


End file.
